Worthington Industries files suit over canisters
Worthington Industries and some trade associations are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over a ruling that would force Worthington Industries to stop making a major product that employs about 500 people.
The company said Thursday it plans to file a petition for review, the equivalent of a lawsuit, against the EPA, following similar suits filed by trade groups including Columbus-based HARDI (Heating, Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International).
The groups are challenging an EPA ruling that would ban a non-refillable canister made by Worthington Industries and widely used by the HVAC and refrigeration industries to recharge air conditioners.
Worthington Industries has made the canisters for 40 years and is the only U.S. manufacturer of the product. About 500 Worthington Industries workers in Columbus and Paducah, Kentucky, make the canisters.
Industry officials fear the ban would force the industry to use much heavier and more expensive tanks.
“As the last remaining manufacturer of non-refillable cylinders, our proposal to the EPA achieves three important goals: It keeps manufacturing jobs
and other benefits have kept workers on the sideline.
Others have cited the lack of affordable child care and fears of getting COVID-19 as reasons why they have not returned to work. Others yet have become self-employed.
Still, there are signs that the labor market is healing.
In Ohio, for example, claims for unemployment benefits are back to about where they were before the pandemic.
Over the last three weeks, fewer than 8,000 new claims for benefits have been filed each week, state jobs data show. There were 39,653 total new and continuing claims for the week ended last Saturday, the lowest in state records that go back to 1986.
Nationally, the unemployment rate hit 4.2% in November. That is a historically low jobless rate though still above the pre-pandemic level of 3.5%.
U.S. employers added just 210,000 jobs during the month, the lowest monthly gain in a year.
Overall, the November jobs figures point to a job market and an economic recovery that look resilient though under threat from a spike in inflation, shortages of workers and supplies and the potential impact of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Many people who lost jobs in the pandemic have not, for various reasons, returned to the workforce. But last month, more Americans came off the sidelines to look for jobs and were generally hired quickly.
The jobs outlook for the coming months has become hazier with the emergence of the omicron variant. Little is known about omicron, and widespread business shutdowns are considered unlikely. Still, omicron could discourage some Americans from traveling, shopping and eating out in the coming months and potentially slow the economy.
Nearly 600,000 people joined the workforce last month, increasing the proportion of Americans who are either working or looking for work. If that much-anticipated development continues, it could point to stronger job growth ahead.
There are now about 3.6 million fewer people with jobs than there were before the pandemic. Yet only about onethird of them are actively looking for work and are classified as unemployed. The remaining two-thirds are no longer job-hunting and so aren’t counted as unemployed. The government classifies people as unemployed only if they’re actively seeking work.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. mawilliams@dispatch.com @Bizmarkwilliams