Oakland foundry will cut half its jobs
AB&I cites air quality, environmental rules for moving work to Texas
OAKLAND >> A scrap metal foundry that has operated in east Oakland for more than a century will chop about 100 jobs in the East Bay and shift the work to Texas due to tightened environmental rules, the company said Friday.
AB&I Foundry, which began operations in Oakland in 1906, said it plans to permanently eliminate about half of its jobs in the East Bay’s largest city sometime in 2022.
The company recycles scrap metal, melts it down, and makes new cast iron pipes and pipe fittings. These fittings, in turn, are key components of plumbing systems in multifamily apartments
and commercial buildings in California and on the West Coast.
“We are heartbroken that about half of the workforce will be impacted
through job losses when molding operations are moved out of California in 2022,” Michael
Lowe, AB&I Foundry’s general manager, said Friday.
The 100 jobs that will be permanently lost in the Bay Area are connected to the company’s molding operations. This production process uses a sand casting system that could be difficult to continue to operate if environmental restrictions on air quality tighten further.
“The company will be permanently shutting down molding operations in 2022 to satisfy ever-increasing
regulatory standards as quickly as possible and well in advance of regulatory deadlines,” AB&I said.
Oakland-based AB&I said it would retain about 100 jobs in Oakland that will concentrate on non-molding production, primarily transforming scrap metal into 10foot lengths of pipe.
The non-molding operations will continue with heightened engineering controls, the company said.
“AB&I has an excellent compliance record with applicable regulatory standards,” Lowe said. “Changing standards create business
uncertainties that make it difficult to continue our operations in California.”
That molding work will instead be conducted at an existing foundry in northeastern Texas.
Between now and 2022, AB&I intends to do all it can to ensure workers who are losing their jobs are trained for new occupations.
“We consider our team members to be family and we are proud of how much they give back to our community,” Lowe said. “Over the next year, we will work closely with them to ensure that they are prepared to
enter the workforce by creating a job readiness program and helping with placement.”
The average tenure of an AB&I worker is 13 years, the company estimated.
AB&I officials warned that the company isn’t certain that it will be able to continue to operate in California at all.
“We are hoping that reducing our operations will make it feasible to continue operating in the state and providing much-needed, high-paying, union jobs in Oakland,” Lowe said. He added, “But that remains to be seen.”