Pennsylvania Aluminum Extrusion Workers Suffer from Unfair Trade
Pennsylvania is justifiably proud of its manufacturing roots. But many of its skilled workers in the aluminum extrusion industry have lost or might soon lose their jobs because countries including China, Mexico, Vietnam, Malaysia, and India are dumping their products into the U.S. at unjustifiably low prices.
The story is sadly familiar. China and other nations have been selling their excess production at cut rates into the U.S., squeezing out domestic manufacturers. A coalition of aluminum extruders from around the country are trying to stop the illegally traded imports by persuading the federal government to impose countervailing duties and tariffs.
The tariffs, if imposed, will save thousands of jobs. In fact, nearly 3,000 workers are employed by aluminum extruders in Pennsylvania, including more than 1,000 unionized workers. Until tariffs are imposed, these Pennsylvania workers are living with insecurity. Bennett McEvoy is President of Western Extrusions Corp. For decades, his family has been making extruded aluminum products, which are light and strong and are part of every-day items from refrigerated trailers for hauling food to commercial window frames.
But his factory across the Betsy Ross Bridge from Philadelphia in Pennsauken, New Jersey, is suffering because of unfairly priced imports. He’s had to lay off Pennsylvanians who worked there and might have to lay off more of them unless the U.S. Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., intervene to enforce the law.
The facility is operating now on a skeleton staff of about 50 people, roughly a quarter the number that should be working there if there was fair competition from abroad. Since last spring alone, the number of employees has been cut in half. “We’re being hammered by low-priced imports,” McEvoy said. “We kept on enough people to keep the plant open, and we’ve been losing money despite that.”
The situation is not sustainable without help from the federal government, McEvoy added.
On the other side of the state, Mark Butterfield, President of Pennex Extruded Products, is facing the same problem. His plants employ hundreds of Pennsylvanians but not as many as they once did. Illegally priced imports are the reason.
“Given how low the imports are priced, it’s hard to win new business and to keep the business we had,” Butterfield said. “We can’t compete in an unfairly traded market and we’re cutting workers’ hours as a result. We’re also holding off on a few strategic growth investments, pending the action from Washington.”
The numbers are heartbreaking. One of Pennex’s plants in Pennsylvania, has eliminated a shift while continuing to monitor forecasts and imports. The Pennex factory in Leetonia, Ohio, which is not far from Pennsylvania, has just dropped 24 hours of production per week impacting the labor associated with a plant that employs more than 220 people. Unfairly traded imports from countries including Korea and Vietnam are the culprits, Butterfield said.
This is especially sad because both Western and Pennex have plans to expand and invest, which would add dozens of jobs for Pennsylvanians. The investments are on hold until federal officials complete their inquiries into what McEvoy and Butterfield firmly believe are illegally imported extrusions.
“Without action out of Washington, the situation will continue to deteriorate,” Butterfield said. “But if trade laws are enforced as they should be, we’ll expand and put more Pennsylvanians to work.”
