Specialty metals maker Allegheny Technologies has cut more than 80 salaried jobs at the Valley's Allegheny Ludlum facilities over the past several days, according to multiple reports from company employees.
Allegheny Technologies, the parent of specialty steelmaker Allegheny Ludlum, announced last week that it will lay off 275 workers by September to cut costs as the company struggles with sluggish metals markets.
At least 80 of these layoffs have occurred at Ludlum's sites in the Alle-Kiski Valley, according to several Ludlum employees, some of whom did not want to be named. Employees also said they expect more cuts soon.
Paula Malloy, chairwoman of the negotiating committee representing 189 clerical and technical workers from plants in Brackenridge, Natrona, Leechburg, Vandergrift, Baghdad, and the technical center in Harrison, said she has been told 50 percent of the cuts will come from the company's exempt work force - mostly managers or other salaried employees.
A large portion of those jobs are middle management positions such as general foremen and superintendents.
Members of the negotiating committee said their union is expecting to suffer from 25 percent of the cuts. Thus far, the company has cut about 29 jobs from the union, according to committee members Malloy, Zane Jordan, Ray Kowalski, Jim Borgan and Roy Dougherty.
Members said they expect another 19 technical and clerical union employees to lose their jobs by Aug. 13.
They also said the other 25 percent of the cuts will be hourly, nonunion jobs.
Of that group, Malloy said she has heard at least four security guards have been laid off, but hasn't been told how many overall layoffs have or will occur at the Valley's plants.
If the clerical and technical workers had not formed a union, as they did in June, she said the situation would be dire.
"These people would have been terminated if we hadn't gone union," Malloy said.
Officials have told the union the cutbacks are temporary, but Malloy said she believes some might be permanent.
"We're hoping to get them back," she said. "We're certainly going to try to get some of them back."
Malloy said the union will meet Aug. 23 to try to get a contract. After that meeting, she said, the company will have 90 days to respond. If nothing is resolved, the negotiations could proceed to arbitration.
The cutbacks have many employees feeling uneasy.
"The tension there is enormous because everyone expects to be axed," said one worker. "It is like having your head in a guillotine and waiting for the blade to drop. The layoffs are being conducted in a merciless manner you couldn't imagine, and we hear they are going to increase in ferocity in August."
"It's like the July massacre," said another employee. "And it's not over."
Allegheny Ludlum is the Valley's largest employer, with about 3,500 people working in Brackenridge, Harrison, Vandergrift and West Leechburg.
The company's spokesman Dan Greenfield refused to give specific numbers or locations as to where the cuts are taking place, but said 80 was a "likely number" for the amount of job cuts in the Valley so far.
He said that the Brackenridge plant might be hit disproportionately by job cuts because it employs more salaried people than Ludlum's other sites do.
Some of the cuts are job eliminations and some are permanent layoffs, Greenfield said. As for the other positions, he said, "It all depends on how well the company can rebound economically.
He warned that the company has an uphill battle.
"From 2000-01, there was an 18 percent drop in consumption in the U.S. of stainless steel sheet and strip, which are Ludlum's largest product lines," Greenfield said.
"When you have an across-the-board cut, it is likely that Brackenridge would be more highly affected than the others," Greenfield said. "The largest number of middle management and office employees are there."
He called the decision-making process behind the layoffs a "painstaking task."
The Ludlum spokesman said the entire situation depends on the economy.
"We were hoping there would be a recovery, but you can't run your business on wishful thinking," Greenfield said.
Because the salaried workers reportedly laid off at Ludlum aren't union members, local labor leaders couldn't confirm these reports.
"They don't keep us informed about what they do with salaried people," said Randy Haas, president of United Steelworkers Union Local 1196. "But we have heard through the grapevine that they plan to eliminate a certain percentage of salaried people."
Jennifer Gross can be reached at jgross@tribweb.com. Jason Black can be reached at jblack@tribweb.com
