MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — There are now less than three weeks until more than 1,200 union and non-union workers at the Viatris plant in Morgantown lose their jobs.
As previously announced, the company will permanently lay off 482 non-union workers and 764 union workers on July 31. A few hundred other workers will be on the job for a few more months.
Viatris and the United Steelworkers Union announced earlier this month a severance agreement had been reached that will provide pay and benefits to approximately 850 workers. Those union workers could see details of the severance package as early as this week, a union official said.
USW International Vice President Fred Redmond told MetroNews affiliate WAJR News the plant closing is jarring for the families, but the agreement will help them move forward.
“We think that the agreement provides some sustainability,” Redmond said. “People will continue to receive pay for a specified period of time, along with medical benefits.”
The two sides, Viatris and USW Local 8-957, began negotiating the severance deal in March.
The workers will qualify for assistance under the Trade Adjustment Assistance Reauthorization Act of 2015. Under the program, eligible workers can get money for additional training, schooling and some supplemental income assistance, Redmond said.
“They qualify for TAA (Trade Adjustment Assistance) and TRA (Trade Readjustment Allowance), so they qualify for those benefits that will enable them to go to school and acquire new skills,” Redmond said.
Even as the closure date approaches, efforts are continuing in hopes of finding a way to keep the plant open and save the jobs. Additionally, workers have rallied in Charleston and Washington D.C. in an effort to get lawmakers involved in the search for another operator.
“We’re still getting inquires from private equity people and other pharmaceutical companies because we’re actively shopping that plant,” Redmond said. “We haven’t been able to develop anything positive that I feel comfortable reporting right now.”
Redmond said the closing of the Morgantown plant, which thrived for years under the Mylan umbrella, says more about moving production to a cheaper overseas market.
“Too often we see in this industry, employers moving off-shore to low-wage countries in order to manufacture their products. Then bring them back into the United States to sell them- not just at the expense of the employees, but communities like Morgantown,” Redmond said.
An increasing amount of oral solid dose production capacity has moved off-shore, adding some strategic and security concerns to the Viatris plan to close the facility, Redmond said.
“We need to intensify our efforts legislatively in order to try to eliminate that practice,” he said.