Delegates from at least two manufacturing companies toured the soon-to-be-closed Intermet-Ironton Iron plant this week.

Thursday, January 13, 2000

Delegates from at least two manufacturing companies toured the soon-to-be-closed Intermet-Ironton Iron plant this week.

"They talk like they’re really interested and are going to try to put a deal through," said Dave Akers, bargaining unit chairman for Steelworkers Local 3664.

One company, invited to Ironton by the Steelworkers, toured the foundry Tuesday, while another heard about its impending closure and came for a tour Wednesday, Akers said.

"It’s a company that deals in just about anything to do with metal," he said. "And they even talked like maybe they would do a joint venture."

Akers wouldn’t release identities of the companies for fear of stymying any deals, and said the union does not want to give the community any false hopes.

"This is so preliminary it shouldn’t even be mentioned," he said. "But it brightened our hopes quite a bit. I don’t think these people would give us any false impressions.

"They left with the last word of ‘We’ll see what we can do.’"

Intermet announced in December that it would close the foundry in February because of a loss in business. It later announced a willingness to sell the Ironton foundry for $1, if an appropriate buyer can be found. The buyer must be able to work the plant, meet its obligations and assume Ironton Iron’s liabilities.

At a public meeting at Ohio University Southern Campus’s Bowman Auditorium Tuesday night, representatives from the Region 7 Economic Development Office, the Governor’s Office of Appalachia, the Ohio Department of Development and the state Bureau of Employment Services, gave the hundreds of Ironton residents gathered more assurances that the state will help the city.

State officials pledged continuing support to the Intermet-Ironton Iron employees, as well as former Cabletron and AlliedSignal employees, in both the long-term arena of finding and maintaining new industry in the city and the short-term goals of providing financial and educational assistance to those who qualify.

This week’s visits also should help keep foundry workers’ hopes up, even though they had no contact with the companies touring the plant, Akers said.

"The union committee was the only ones who had close contact," he said. "We got a lot of confidence out of this and we have to be optimistic. We’re not ready to give up."

Akers said automakers are breaking records selling cars, so iron and steel companies across the nation should be doing well enough to want another foundry or plant.

The effort of state and national Steelworkers leaders, who are searching for a replacement company to move in once Intermet leaves, also boosts local workers’ hopes, he said.