Published: May 14, 2009 04:42 pm      

Another idling — 05/15/09

It may not be surprising, but it still is devastating for the area

Doug Campbell, the new president of United Steelworkers of America Local 1865, is right when he says Wednesday’s announcement that the steelmaker “likely” will idle most operations at its Ashland Works in late July or early August is not the least bit surprising.

But just because AK Steel workers, and just about everyone else in this community, knew the second idling of the mill was likely to happen does not make it any easier to take. Nor does it make the economic impact of that move on this community any less devastating.

The Ashland Works was idled just before Thanksgiving, and when the blast furnace was restarted in early February, we and members of Local 1865 knew the reprieve could be brief.

In a Feb. 4 editorial expressing thanks for the recall of more than 500 hourly workers at the Ashland Mill, we wrote: “Lest we get too excited about this bit of positive economic news, the reason the company is restarting the blast furnace is because it is idling its blast furnace in Middletown, Ohio. AK Steel previously had scheduled to idle the Middletown furnace for 45 days beginning in March for maintenance work.”

Thus, we knew in February that once work on the Middletown blast furnace was completed, about the only way to avoid another idling of the Ashland Mill was for a major, nationwide economic recovery to take place. That, of course, has not happened, athough the economy does show some early signs of recovery.

Since the closing of its hot strip mill in the early 1990s, the Ashland Mill is not capable of producing a full-line of steel products. Much of the work done in Ashland is transported to Middletown for completion. That makes the Middletown Works “the only efficient choice for this very low level of orders,” James L. Wainscott, AK Steel chairman, president and CEO, said.

The shutdown — which will affect about 750 hourly and salaried workers in Ashland — is likely to continue through the end of the year. Beyond that, who knows? But we do know this: Without Chrys-ler and General Motors manufacturing vehicles in this country, it will be difficult for the Ashland Works to survive. Anyone who thinks the failure of two of the “Big Three” automakers will not have a devastating impact on the economy of this community — and of the nation as a whole — simply does not understand how dependent manufacturers are on the success of other companies.

To be sure, AK Steel employs less than a fourth of the number of workers it had 30 years ago, but those remaining steelworkers have some of the highest paid manufacturing jobs in the nation and they spend their paychecks at businesses throughout the Tri-State. The loss of those jobs — even for only a few months — will impact every retail establishment in this community and could further weaken the real estate market here.

There is little we can do locally to assure the economic recovery of AK Steel. All we can do is hope this economic recession ends before too many more businesses permanently close their doors. Already we have seen the demise of such major retailers as Value City, Goody’s and Circuit City.

While the billions of federal dollars President Obama and Congress are spending to restore this nation’s economy concerns us, we are even more concerned that all that spending will not pull us out of the economic doldrums. If not, we are all in trouble.