Trending
Like many in our area, I woke up Thursday morning to news none of us ever wanted to hear.
Cleveland-Cliffs, the current owner of what is left of our once-thriving steel mill, announced its plans to idle "indefinitely" the tinplate production facilities located in Weirton. Company officials pointed to a decision by the U.S. International Trade Commission from a couple of weeks ago, determining the domestic tinplate industry was not being damaged by imports from a select group of countries.
The idling is expected to happen sometime in mid to late April.
We know the history of the plant. Ernest T. Weir and James Phillips organized the Phillips Sheet and Tin Plate Company in 1905, purchasing an existing tin mill in Clarksburg. A few years later, in 1909, Weir and John C. Williams brought the operation to Holliday's Cove, purchasing new assets and expanding production and building a company town. In 1918, the company was renamed Weirton Steel.
Weirton would become part of the formation of National Steel in 1929.
In response to a loss of demand (partially connected to increasing imports) National would leave Weirton in the early 1980s, resulting in Weirton Steel becoming employee owned. It would follow this model until 2004, when the company would declare bankruptcy and be purchased by Wilbur Ross' International Steel Group.
That ended up being more of a "flip" situation, as ISG merged with Mittal Steel just under a year after obtaining the Weirton plant, and then Mittal merged with Arcelor in 2006. ArcelorMittal would remain a part of the Weirton community until selling off its U.S. holdings in December 2020 to Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.
We've watched as these sales and mergers have taken place, knowing there would be changes for our community as a result, but that mill, in some form, has stood. The hope is there would always be some operation from those buildings. Unfortunately, the politics and economy of the world have resulted in our worst fear.
After 115 years, the last aspect of Weirton Steel will, apparently, be no more in only a couple of months' time. A little over 900 local residents will have difficult decisions ahead, as they consider the offers being made by the company.
Make no mistake, though, the "idling," (let's just go ahead and call is a closure or shut-down), will have an effect on our entire region. The 900 or so employees will be faced with trying to find new employment locally or leaving the Ohio Valley. Their families will be making changes of their own. Local businesses will be affected, too, as there will, no doubt, be fewer customers patronizing their establishments. It means fewer tax dollars going to our cities, counties and school boards, which means the potential for cuts in services and programs.
At a time when our area has finally seen real signs of hope for a better future, we are being kicked back down the ladder we have fought hard to climb.
As the son, grandson and great-grandson of steelworkers, I think not only of what will be, but what could have been, had we not held so strongly onto the belief that Weirton Steel would always be there. The steel industry made our area what it was, and, as a result, we mistakenly allowed those companies to not only "take care" of us, but also do whatever they wanted. They would always be there, after all. Why look at other options?
This week, we received a big reminder.
I'm grateful for the opportunities our local steel mills provided, employing hundreds of thousands of our residents for generations. I'm also thankful for the new opportunities we are finally receiving to build for a new future.
But, I worry about how much harder we are going to have to fight to get ourselves back up now.
(Howell, a resident of Colliers, is managing editor of The Weirton Daily Times, and can be contacted at chowell@weirtondailytimes.com or followed on Twitter/X @CHowellWDT)