(The following story by Jeff Sturgeon appeared on the Roanoke Times website on December 19.)
ROANOKE, Va. — FreightCar America said Tuesday it will close a union factory in Pennsylvania and rely on a plant in Roanoke and a plant in Illinois to maintain freight-car output.
The announcement left unclear whether FreightCar will add to its Roanoke work force.
Kevin Bagby, chief financial officer, said FreightCar is choosing to conceal the size of its Roanoke work force — now and in the future — to avoid tipping competitors about production levels.
In 2005, Chicago-based FreightCar leased the former Norfolk Southern East End Shops in downtown Roanoke, which had been idle since 2000, and hired a work force. In February of this year, a spokesman said an estimated 400 to 500 workers were or would soon be building coal cars in Roanoke for customers including Norfolk Southern.
But the company and its workers have been at odds in Johnstown, Pa., where 390 people are employed at a long-established rail car plant and represented by United Steelworkers of America.
FreightCar has been concerned that production costs are too high.
Dennis Conahan, president of USW 2635 in Johnstown, said FreightCar asked for a wage cut and the union “tried to accommodate them the best we could.”
The union sought to be guaranteed work and did not believe its request was met. The two sides tangled in court and, on Tuesday, the company announced the plant’s closure. Conahan said production levels had been significantly reduced because of a lack of orders.
Stan Sharples, a lead man at the Roanoke FreightCar plant, said he expects production to expand here. While unfortunate, the closure in Johnstown is “good for us. Now, any incoming work is going to be dealt out to two facilities instead of three,” Sharples said.
He said the Roanoke work force totals about 150 — though laid-off workers are subject to being called back — and is represented by the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen Division of Transportation Communications International Union.