PITTSBURGH GLASS WORKS PLANS EAST DEER CLOSURE
Company faces ‘difficult realities,’ including outdated capabilities for making modern windshields
Pittsburgh Glass Works expects to close its automotive glass plant in East Deer next year because the aging facility would require significant upgrades and investment to compete in the rapidly changing automotive market.
The closure would shutter a historic site along the Allegheny River where former owner PPG began making glass more than a century ago.
The plant employs 193 workers who would be eligible to reapply for jobs at other PGW facilities, said Joseph Stas, president and chief executive of the North Shorebased company that has eight plants in the U.S.
Although the decision is not yet final, Mr. Stas said PGW decided to announce its plans so that employees “have time to make the right decision for themselves and their families.”
The company expected to inform all employees who work at the facility by early Wednesday. Company officials on Tuesday met with United Steelworkers Local 12G, which represents the plant workers.
Bobby “Mac” McAuliffe, director of United Steelworkers District 10, said in a statement the union is working with the company, community and political leaders “to preserve the livelihoods of our members and their families.”
“While the USW recognizes the challenges facing the company, we also recognize the importance of these good-paying jobs to this community,” he said.
While Pittsburgh Glass Works is open to discussions with the union and employees about alternatives that would keep the plant operating, “We don’t see it at this point in time,” Mr. Stas said.
The “difficult realities” that likely will lead to the plant’s closure, he said, include outdated capabilities that create challenges to incorporating designs that PGW customers including Ford, GM and Daimler AG now demand in automotive windshields. Those technologies include camera