Following the re-opening of the L.E. Smith Glass Co. in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania in early 2005, new owner Bill Kelman told politicians and media that the plant“s furnaces will be running at …
Following the re-opening of the L.E. Smith Glass Co. in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania in early 2005, new owner Bill Kelman told politicians and media that the plant“s furnaces will be running at capacity by the time Smith celebrates its centenary in 2007. After production was suspended for several months, one glass-making furnace was restarted in March 2005 and about 35 to 40 employees returned to work. Five years previously the plant employed 130 to 150. Kelman said he was planning a museum and a larger factory store for the company site in Mount Pleasant, about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh, where the firm has been in business since 1907. He is also trying to bring additional manufacturers to the plant“s unused and adaptable space. Mount Pleasant Mayor Gerald Lucia said the Smith factory and its former neighbor, Lenox Crystal, attracted busloads of tourists from the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The old Lenox site, now the Mount Pleasant Glass Center, houses a Lenox gift shop, Jamestown Crystal and Crystal Concepts. Lucia hopes a new glass museum, together with an annual glass and ethnic heritage festival held every September, will bring those tourists back to Mount Pleasant. “There“s a spinoff for the community,” he said. Kelman was approached to buy the plant in Autumn 2004 while the company was in receivership and its future in doubt. Discussions with Kelman began in early September 2004, and the sale closed earlier in 2005. “This is a story of grace under fire. It is a story of sacrifice. People put themselves on the line to save this beautiful company and the history it represents,” said Tom Croft, executive director of the Steel Valley Authority, which helped in the search for a buyer. Workers stayed with the firm during the long search for a new owner, some making sure that the furnaces were shut down properly in late 2004 so that they could be safety restarted. The staff, most of whom belong to the United Steelworkers union, are currently working under an interim contract without health care coverage. Talks on a new agreement will be held shortly. “We lost a lot. We have no holiday pay, no benefits. We have our hourly wage, that“s it,” said Lois Monroe, president of the other union local at the plant. A present a single furnace with a daily capacity of around 1800 Kg is up and running, while another small furnace is in the process of being restarted. A larger, 26- ton furnace, may one day be reconfigured to handle small batches of different glass colors.