GOP Senate hopeful Dave McCormick stands with workers protesting Pennsylvania factory shutdown, seeks FTC investigation

CHARLEROI, Pa.– A century-old glass factory is closing, putting 300 people out of a job, and Dave McCormick, the Republican challenging Pennsylvania Sen.

Bob Casey, wants to save it.“I’m here today to stand in solidarity with these workers in the fight to keep these jobs here,” McCormick told a crowd of workers, retirees and their families Friday. Anchor Hocking announced this month plans to shutter its Corelle Brand factory that makes iconic Pyrex glassware — and has supported the local economy since 1892.The plant survived the steel-mill and coal-mine shutdowns that hollowed out Mon Valley’s industrial communities in the 1980s.

Now its corporate owner is dismantling equipment and moving to Ohio — but the workers are aiming to stop it, enlisting whatever help they can.United Steelworkers Local 53G Vice President Daniele Byrne, whose grandfather worked in the factory and who met her husband there, said the shutdown “would cripple over 300 families and help destroy the pride of the Mon Valley.”Byrne said she called many people to “help save us” but didn’t hear back.“Dave McCormick was the first person to offer to come to Charleroi.”McCormick recalled the struggle of his friends’ parents after the carpet factory shut down in Bloomsburg, Pa., where he went to high school: “I know what happens when the anchor for a community shrinks or goes away.”“I don’t want to see this plant leave Charleroi, and I don’t want to see these employees lose their jobs.

I will keep fighting for them until a victory is at hand,” he declared.The glass factory was the second stop on McCormick’s Price of Poor Leadership Tour, which has allowed the former hedge-fund executive to spotlight the concerns of working-class Pennsylvanians and take shots at Casey, who’s spent nearly 18 years in the Senate.The strategy seems to be working — three new polls find Casey’s longtime lead narrowing, with one showing him ahead by just 1 point.McCormick a...