Workers who retired from Century Aluminum in Jackson County are saying “thank you” to state lawmakers.
“They gave us a chance to be in the fight and, without them, we would not have been,” said Karen Gorrell, a representative for the Century retirees. Many of them were at the State Capitol on Tuesday.
Last year, the Legislature cleared the way for Century Aluminum to work out a special rate for electricity with Appalachian Power for the company’s facility in Ravenswood. It has been closed since 2009.
The legislation was designed to help the company reopen and put hundreds of people back to work. Under an agreement with Century, the fulfillment of promised benefits for the retirees hinges on a reopening as well.
Despite a lot of back and forth, the reopening plans fell through when Century rejected a rate plan from the state Public Service Commission last fall, saying the plan was not economically viable. The PSC was against putting Appalachian customers in the position of subsidizing Century at times when the cost of aluminum is low.
Earlier this month, though, Century CEO Michael Bless told Century shareholders the company is working on other ways to put the Ravenswood site back into operation.
In a statement, Bless said Century “secured significant support for Ravenswood’s power cost and are seeking to close the remaining gap that will allow us to reopen the plant, a goal to which we remain steadfastly committed.”
Gorrell says she is not getting too excited about the reopening prospect yet.
“I’m learning my lesson. I’m not going to jump and down in the streets,” she said on Tuesday’s MetroNews Talkline. “This has been a long year. There’s been a lot of disappointment, a lot of things have happened that surprised us, by Century, in that year.”
She says she is glad that the retirees have support at the State House.
“We are here because our state has embraced us, our state has assured us and Century that we must be taken care of before they get benefits from the state of West Virginia.”