The Corelle Brands glass manufacturing plant in Charleroi as seen on Sept. 20, 2024 (Capital-Star photo by Kim Lyons)
CHARLEROI — Mark Yankosky has worked as an electrician at the glass plant in Charleroi for 16 years, and worries what will happen to him and the community if it closes at the end of the year as planned.
“We’re here trying because we hope that we can save the place,” Yankosky said during a rally Friday near the plant in the Mon Valley community, about 30 miles south of Pittsburgh. “There’s a lot of people’s lives that are dependent on these jobs.”
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick, borough leaders and glass factory workers joined the rally at the Corelle Brands glass plant as part of a last-ditch effort to try to save the 300 jobs there.
Mark Eichhorn, CEO of Corelle parent company Anchor Hocking, both of which were owned by Centre Lane Partners, told the employees earlier this month that the facility would close and about half the jobs would relocate to its Lancaster, Ohio, facility.
Yankoksy said he said he thought McCormick drawing awareness to the situation was a good thing, “but I honestly don’t believe that there’s much he can do. But we have to try.”
He said there weren’t a lot of other options for him in town if the glass plant closes. “Maybe Walmart,” he said.
Charleroi Borough Councilman Larry Celaschi, a Republican, had harsh words for U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, McCormick’s Democratic opponent. He said Casey had sent “two staff aides” to meet with them three days ago. “They were clueless as to the magnitude of what was happening in Charleroi. They didn’t even know the Quality Pasta plant had closed and Charleroi lost 100 jobs the Friday before Labor Day.”
Charleroi Borough Councilman Larry Celaschi (R) holds up a glass blowing pipe that he said his grandfather used at the glass plant in Charleroi for 50 years. Workers at the plant rallied to try to prevent the plant from closing, Sept. 20, 2024 (Capital-Star photo by Kim Lyons)
Danielle Byrne, vice president of Corelle Brands’ Charleroi division of United Steelworkers Local 53G — who corrected McCormick when he said she worked for Anchor Hocking — said the plant closure would “devastate” Charleroi. “Not only that, but 300 hardworking people will lose good paying jobs and be without a job,” she said. Some employees have worked at the plant for decades, she added.
McCormick held a glass Pyrex measuring cup made at the plant as he greeted several dozen workers holding signs that read “keep making Pyrex in Charleroi,” and “Bob stays, PA pays.”
McCormick told the workers he understood “how important these jobs are to your families, how important these are to the community,” and pinned the blame on Casey.
“A lot of the challenges we’re having right here in Charleroi and right here across our commonwealth are due to poor leadership,” he said. “You know, we haven’t had a fair deal with China. And China has been able to dump its products or subsidize its products, and it’s not been fair to Pennsylvania manufacturers. You know, we’ve had too much onerous regulation, and Bob Casey’s not done anything about it.”
The plant closure was the apparent result of a failed corporate takeover that did not involve China.
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Following a Friday campaign event in Montgomery County with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Casey told the Capital-Star the closure of the plant was “another instance here of a corporation trying to shut things down in a community to the detriment of that community.”
Casey added that he hoped Charleroi “would be the subject of attention from any leader of either party to help them with an economic challenge we’re facing right now.
“And I hope that any public official or political candidate would when they appear in Charleroi, Pennsylvania or in Washington County or anywhere, and talk about the challenges we face on immigration or border security that they would do that in a responsible way,” he added.
Casey said while he has not been to Charleroi “lately,” he has fought on behalf of the people of Washington County for a long time, “bringing jobs and development and also lifting up their children with the child tax credit, investing in schools in Washington County. And I’ll continue to do that.”
United Steelworkers (USW) District 10 Director Bernie Hall blasted McCormick in a statement Friday and said Casey had reached out to the USW about the closing and “continues working behind the scenes” to help the plant’s union workers.
“David McCormick sunk to a new low by visiting Charleroi to exploit the closing of the Pyrex plant and the loss of hundreds of good union jobs,” Hall said in the statement.
“McCormick himself has inflicted this very kind of heartache and misery on working people by cutting jobs at his own companies, teaching other employers how to outsource, and doing business with Chinese firms that undermine America’s economy and security,” Hall added. “He’s a hypocrite who lined his pockets on the backs of ordinary Americans—and he’s unfit to stand alongside hard-working USW members.”
U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick speaks to workers while holding a glass Pyrex cup made by workers at the Corelle Brands glass manufacturing plant in Charleroi Sept. 20, 2024 (Capital-Star photo)
Casey sent a letter to Anchor Hocking CEO Mark Eichhorn on Thursday, expressing his “dismay” at the news the company plans to close the Charleroi plant, noting the 132-year legacy of glassmaking in the Mon Valley borough. He asked for a response by Oct. 1 to several questions about why the company decided to close the facility, and urged the company to reconsider.
“The jobs at this plant have provided family-sustaining livelihoods for the tens of thousands of proud workers who have shaped it into the local legacy it is today,” Casey wrote. “Your sudden announcement to close the plant will upend the lives of Pennsylvania workers who have contributed to your company’s success.”
Haitian immigrant comments
McCormick declined to answer questions Friday about his recent comments about Haitian immigrants arriving in Charleroi and putting a strain on local services, a claim first mentioned by former President Donald Trump during a Sept. 12 campaign rally in Tucson. Trump pointed to Charleroi as having seen a “2,000% increase in the population of Haitian migrants,” and that it was “costing local taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars and the town is virtually bankrupt.”
McCormick repeated the claims on social media the following day, posting that “Roads are dangerous, schools are overwhelmed and police are struggling to keep up with the surge,” and blaming “weak immigration policy.”
But on Friday McCormick said he was trying to “bring attention to the most important thing in this community, by being here today.”
Sean Logue, chairman of the Washington County Republican Party, said Friday that the Haitian immigrants in Charleroi “aren’t really the problem” and said the pending plant closure was the bigger issue in the community.
“[The Haitians] actually have a decent reputation in this community,” Logue said. He said there were issues, such as traffic accidents, “but as far as being law-abiding and being church-going and being hard working, that’s their reputation,” he said. “It’s very clear the problem is that the federal government dumped these people in and then won’t help the local communities.”
It was not clear what, if anything, McCormick would be able to do to prevent the plant from closing, but he said he was showing “solidarity” with the workers. Logue suggested one option could be to delay the plant closure to see if a sale might be possible.
A sign near the Corelle Brands plant in Charleroi, where Pyrex glassware is made, Sept. 20, 2024. (Capital-Star photo by Kim Lyons)
Gov. Josh Shapiro told the Capital-Star in a statement that the GOP rhetoric around Charleroi was “divisive and it is undermining the safety of a community that needs help and people willing to work together to deliver solutions – not more grandstanding and division for political gain.”
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) criticized McCormick’s comments on social media as “un-American talking points + blaming everything on immigrants.”
State Rep. Bud Cook (R-Washington), whose district includes Charleroi, did not reply to a request for comment from the Capital-Star. Neither did U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-14th District).
State Sen. Camera Bartolotta (R-Westmoreland) declined to comment when contacted by the Capital-Star. But she pushed back in several social media posts to online comments about Charleroi’s Haitian migrants. “These Haitians are working hard, sending their children to school and opening businesses. They are here legally,” she said. “They did not cross our border. Many are professionals who escaped horrific conditions in their home country.” She added that the Haitian migrants had proven to be hard workers and helped local businesses.
Late Friday, Casey’s office said he had sent a letter to U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chair Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon ) requesting a confidential briefing from the Federal Trade Commission on questions about Anchor Hocking’s “assumption of control over the Pyrex manufacturing operation in Charleroi.”
Specifically, Casey wanted to hear about “the failed acquisition of Instant Brands’ Houseware division, which included the Charleroi plant, by Centre Lane Partners during Instant Brands’ chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in 2023. After the failed acquisition, a Centre Lane company, Anchor Hocking, assumed control of the Charleroi Pyrex plant and is now planning to close the facility.”
Casey’s office said that when he learned of Anchor Hocking’s plan to close the plant on Sept. 5, his office reached out to union leaders at the plant and Charleroi borough officials, and “helped convene a task force of county commissioners, borough officials and local economic development leaders.”
And, according to Casey’s office, his staff also notified the White House Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization, which led to federal officials visiting the plant on Sept. 11.
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