West Virginia daily

Employees on strike against an aluminum mill say they have lost cars and homes since they stopped working, and they are trying to figure out how they'll earn money now that the plant is scheduled to close at the end of the year.

So far, the people who worked for Ormet Corp. haven't been eligible for unemployment benefits, and finding a new job would be tough in an area with one of highest unemployment rates in Ohio.

Ormet, recovering from bankruptcy, announced last week that it is closing its mill that rolls aluminum into sheets, laying off 500 hourly workers and 100 salaried employees.

About 1,200 members of the United Steelworkers went on strike last November at the mill and a second Ormet plant in Hannibal, about 115 miles southeast of Columbus.

Ormet, based in Wheeling, W.Va., said it plans to continue operating a reduction plant that turns ore into aluminum for processing, but striking workers are worried about its future, too.

Many coal and manufacturing companies that used to populate the Appalachian region have left or aren't hiring. Workers at the PPG Natrium chemical-processing plant, in New Martinsville, W.Va., across the Ohio River from Hannibal, are also on strike.

The news of the plant's closing is a blow for Monroe County, which had the state's fourth-highest county unemployment rate in September at 8.3 percent.

U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, a Democrat from Lisbon whose district includes the plant, wrote a letter to the state unemployment benefits officials on Friday, asking them to reconsider their earlier ruling denying benefits to rolling mill workers now that the plant is closing.

The unemployment office will review the request when it receives the letter, Dennis Evans, a spokesman for Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, said Monday.

Aleris has 18 months to clear the equipment from the facility and it could be two years before a new company can move in, said Tracey Craig, director of the Monroe County Chamber of Commerce.

"It's going to hurt our county government. It's going to hurt our school system," Craig said. "They were already under tight budgets to begin with, let alone when this sale goes through."

After the workers went on strike, groups of protesters were arrested twice, and sheriff's deputies said some had knives, baseball bats and other weapons. Union officials disputed the charges, saying some of them may have had pocket knives or axes for chopping wood for fires but were not brandishing weapons.

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