Local News
Union VP rips Duferco over ‘Buy American’
Company angling for exemption, USW says
A top officer of the International United Steelworkers on Tuesday accused Duferco Farrell Corp. of using “despicable’’ and “blackmail’’ tactics to escape the Buy American provision of the federal stimulus package.
In a letter to the editor appearing in Tuesday’s American Metal Market, a trade publication, International USW Vice President Tom Conway said Duferco has been complaining the Buy American provision is placing a tremendous burden on the company and will force the layoffs of its 600 USW workers.
“This unnecessary and unwarranted threat is despicable,’’ Conway wrote.
Duferco’s Farrell plant buys slabs overseas — mainly in Russia — and then rolls them into steel coils. The company has said it does that because the slabs it needs are generally not available in the U.S.
The Buy American provision of the $787 billion stimulus package specifically calls for steel used in public works projects to be poured in the U.S. For months Duferco has been trying to secure an exemption — so far without success.
For most of the year the company has had rolling layoffs at the Farrell plant due to a severe decline in orders. Production and maintenance workers at Duferco are represented by USW Local 1016.
In a phone interview from his Pittsburgh office, Conway said Duferco is using the threat of employee layoffs as a way to squeeze the government into giving them an exemption.
“I really think this is a form of blackmail,’’ Conway said.
Messages left at Duferco were not immediately returned on Tuesday.
Conway noted the plant is a joint venture between Duferco Farrell and OJSC Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works, better known as NLMK of Russia. NLMK, Conway said, owns an electric furnace shop at the Port of Indiana operating as Beta Steel Corp. and melts steel into slabs which Duferco can use to meet the Buy American requirements.
However, Conway said Duferco contends that’s not the best solution as it prefers 10-inch slabs rather than the 8-inch slabs produced by Beta Steel. Another American steel producer, which he declined to identify, also is willing to sell Duferco 10-inch slabs, he added.
“I’ve talked to American steelmakers willing to sell them (Duferco) steel at market prices,’’ Conway said. “I know what prices these companies are offering Duferco because the companies have told me what they are. The prices are probably below the cost of production because people just want to generate volume right now.’’
He acknowledged a 10-inch slab is more efficient for Duferco.
“But that doesn’t fit their model of rolling which is based on cheap Russian slabs,’’ Conway said.
American steel producers are in bad shape now with less than a third of all U.S. blast furnaces currently in production, he said. Duferco’s latest complaint that shipping expenses for steel from Indiana, Maryland and Alabama are so costly that it’s better for them financially to import slabs from Russia “doesn’t pass the smell test,’’ Conway said.
“To blame all of this on the Buy American provision is just a terrible thing to do to the (Duferco) workforce and the people in the community,’’ Conway said.
Separately, Conway said Wheatland Tube Co. has agreed to buy steel from Duferco for certain products. The pipe and tubemaker said in May it couldn’t buy steel from Duferco because of the Buy American provision. Wheatland was one of Duferco’s best customers.
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Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
Hermitage commissioners introduced an ordinance Wednesday to increase sanitary user fees.
Residents tapped into the Hermitage Municipal Authority lines now pay $95 a quarter. That rate will bump up to $105 a quarter on Jan. 1, under the proposed rate hike.
Two more hikes on Jan. 1, 2012, and Jan. 1, 2013, will result in the rates increasing 50 percent from the current fee. -
Water is on at Forrest Brooke
Water service has been restored at Forrest Brooke Manufactured Home Community after well problems left the 165-unit complex dry Tuesday.
A boil and conserve water advisory has been issued by the DEP and will remain in place until tests confirm the water is safe to drink, Forrest Brooke’s manager Pete Havens said.
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Storm damages trees, wires
Thunderstorms ripped through parts of Mercer and neighboring counties Wednesday night, downing trees and wires and keeping rescue workers on their toes.
A Mercer County 911 dispatcher shortly after 8 p.m. said they were busy with calls across the northern part of the county. He said there had been a few reports of trees falling on homes.
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City leaders open to talks
Sharon officials aren’t opposed to sitting down with their counterparts in Farrell to revisit the idea of combining the two struggling cities.
“It never costs a penny to talk and there’s no (idea) that’s not worth looking at,” Sharon councilman Ed Palanski said. “I think it would be foolish to oppose looking at the idea.”
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Murphy’s Law doesn’t faze regional planners
A complicated, two-day public meeting blitz in 32 counties ran headlong into Murphy’s Law in Mercer County on Tuesday.
The group Power of 32 are looking to re-write the regional map and create a grand, 15-year strategic economic plan for the 32 counties in four states that make up the Ohio River basin and greater Pittsburgh area.
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Forrest Brooke copes with water outage
Residents of Forrest Brooke Mobile Home Community in Jefferson and Lackawannock Townships woke up Tuesday morning to find they didn’t have any water.
Managers of the park could not be reached for comment, but residents said they were told they won’t get water service back for at least another month.
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City facing bleak financial reality
LaVon Saternow has been Farrell’s city manager since 1992. Shortly after she took the job, Sharon Steel, the city’s economic engine, officially closed down.
Since, the city has struggled to remain solvent and Mrs. Saternow said it is facing its worst financial crisis in her tenure.
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Near-complete addition to let man come home
Although the weather delayed the start of Penny and Paul Strechansky’s construction project by about three weeks, the end of the sawing, hammering and stapling is in sight.
“It should be done by the middle of next week,” Strechansky said of the 15-by-20 foot addition being built onto the back of his garage in Hermitage, which will be the new home of his grandson, David Johnson.
Johnson was critically injured in a car crash June 19, 2009, on what is now Interstate 376 in Lawrence County. The crash rendered Johnson, who just turned 21, blind and brain damaged. He is unable to care for himself.
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Man prison-bound for role in drug buy shooting
It may never be known for certain who fired the two fatal shots that killed a Sharon teen on Nov. 6 on Wallis Avenue during a botched drug deal, prosecutors have said.
But Christopher Swogger, 24, Sharon, was fingered by at least one other suspect as the one whose bullets killed John B. Hosey III, 18, of 422 Meek St. Swogger was sentenced Monday.
Swogger was sent to prison for 1 1/2 to 3 years for having a firearm without a license, ending his role in the criminal prosecutions of the drug deal turned shooting.
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Farrell, Sharon to revisit merger
Times are tough.
In Farrell Monday night, city council heard a grim financial report from City Manager LaVon Saternow.
“It’s not a pretty picture,” Mrs. Saternow said. “We could conceivably run out of cash by the end of the year. I don’t know how to put it more bluntly.”
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Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
