Smelter closed for good, it's time to move on
Sunday, November 9, 2003 10:30 AM PST
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E-mail this articleOur hearts go out to the workers at Longview Aluminum, who lost their jobs almost two years ago when the smelter closed down.
In the months immediately after that, some of those workers got new jobs while many others went to Lower Columbia College to learn new skills. Some, though, long to return to the smelter, where the pay and benefits were good and the hard work on making aluminum was satisfying.
We're here to give these workers our sincere sympathies --- and some tough love.
The smelter is not going to reopen. While the buildings still stand, the plant is as good as gone.
The former workers who have stood in front of the plant two Saturdays in a row throw their chins collectively in defiance of the cold facts facing them. The plant's owner, Chicago businessman Michael Lynch, no longer controls the smelter. Even if he did, Lynch does not have the money to reopen it. Former owner Alcoa Corp., has turned away from an impassioned plea by the plant's bankruptcy trustee to reclaim the plant.
There are no potential buyers, only a string of companies ready to take the plant apart piece by piece. To workers hoping to save the plant, those companies must look vultures in the distance.
We understand that the workers and their union hope to delay the trustee's divestiture of the plant's assets. If there were a prospective buyer in the wings, someone who just needed a little more time to arrange financing, then we would be standing with them. We, too, would implore the trustee to give the workers and the plant more time.
But there is no buyer in the wings. We believe the trustee when he says that.
What's happening now outside the gates of Longview Aluminum is almost a wake, with workers unable to accept the shock that the aluminum plant is gone. Everyone who has ever experienced a significant loss in life has asked that same question: How can this be?
We know that the Longview plant was far more than buildings, gantry cranes and crucibles full of molten aluminum.
It was a sprawling community landmark that stood for honest hard work, good pay, and a sense of lasting security to area families. We share with these good and decent aluminum workers their sadness and anger over the loss of the plant. They've gone through all the stages of grieving, except one: acceptance. It's now time to let go, and move on.
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