Metro-East Area News Briefs

Chronicle Media

Granite City Steel Works
(Photo Courtesy of U.S. Steel)

U.S. Steel recalling 200 Granite City workers

United States Steel Corporation has announced it will recall to work some 200 employees at its Granite City Works in mid-February.  The move comes as the Pittsburg-based steelmaker prepares to reopen the plant’s hot strip mill, as part of an “asset revitalization” program.

Under that program, the mill has been reconfigured to process slabs sourced from other U.S. Steel domestic facilities.

“U. S. Steel is making this adjustment to its hot strip mill operating configuration to provide better alignment with customer needs and improve service while increasing the pace of its asset revitalization plan,” company officials said in a prepared statement.

While the asset revitalization effort will result in the reopening of the Granite City strip mill, it will result in “periodic outages” at U.S. Steel’s Gary Works in Gary, Ind.; Great Lakes Works in Detroit, Mich., and Mon Valley Works in Pittsburgh.

U.S. Steel temporarily closed blast furnaces and steelmaking facilities at it Granite City Works in December 2015, with the hot strip mill then idled in January 2016.  In all 2,000 workers were laid off at the Granite City facility.  Company officials blamed challenging global market conditions.

For now, the blast furnaces and steelmaking facilities will remain idled.  However, the pickle line, cold mill and finishing lines have continued in operation at  Granite City Works.

Overall Metro-East area unemployment decreased half-percent year-over-year in October, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security. The unemployment rate in Granite City dropped 1.6 percent from October 2015 to October 2016

Some industry observers cite a recent ruling by the International Trade Commission, as a factor in the reopening of the Granite City hot strip mill.  The ruling is seen as giving  U.S. steel producers a more level playing field against cheap foreign steel.

New East St. Louis Township supervisor named

Former St. Clair County Board member Tommy Dancy has been appointed the new supervisor for East St. Louis Township. He replaces Oliver Hamilton who resigned after pleading guilty to wire fraud, related to the alleged misuse of township funds.

Dancy is a former director of the East St. Louis Department of Regulatory Affairs.

Hamilton pled guilty to allegations that he spent more than $40,000 of township money on personal purchases between 2012 and 2016, including trips to Las Vegas. His sentencing is set for March.

SIUE faculty union approved

The Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board has certified the Southern Illinois University (SIUE) Faculty Association as the exclusive bargaining agent for the 400 tenured and tenure-track faculty at the university.

Faculty members began organizing the union just prior to the start of the 2015-2016 academic year at SIUE, amid growing concern over Illinois continuing budget crisis and the adequacy of state funding to SIUE. Its first membership meeting was held in November.

The new faculty union local is a chapter of the Illinois Education Association (IEA) and the National Education Association (NEA).

Madison ethanol plant sold

Omaha, Neb.-based Green Plains Renewable Energy, the world’s third-largest ethanol producer, has taken ownership of the Madison, Ill, biofuels plant formerly operated by Spanish renewable energy company Abengoa.  Abengoa filed for bankruptcy in June.

In August, Green Plains announced a deal to purchase the Madison facility and two other biofuel plants from Abengoa for $237 million. Green Plains has been steadily expanding over recent years, growing from four to 17 production facilities since 2008.

Opened in 2008, the Madison plant employs about 50 workers year-round, processing up to 150 truckloads of corn each day.   The plant produces more than 90 million gallons of ethanol each year, in addition to livestock feed and corn oil.

Dupo man trapped three days in car

A Dupo man was trapped in his vehicle for some 80 hours – in temperatures as low as 16 degrees – following an accident south of Belleville, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.

IDOT workers, while checking road conditions during snowy weather, Dec.16, noticed an SUV partially submerged in water, in a gully along Route 156 near Hecker On approaching the vehicle, the two worker found Christopher Belfield, 28, who later told authorities he had crashed at the site after leaving a family member’s residence three days earlier. He was airlifted to St. Louis University Hospital for treatment, according to the Waterloo Republic Times.

–Metro-East Area News Briefs–