Eastern Railroad Discussion > NY: Alcoa to keep Massena smelter open with incentives

Alcoa announced plans to shut down its two aluminum smelters at Massena, near the St Lawrence River.  Follwing an intervention by Governor Cuomo and $68mn in lower cost electricity and investments, the smelters will remain open for 3.5 more years.  The smelters are significant shippers on the former New York Central, now CSX line.  They are also huge economic presences with 600 jobs in an otherwise bleak area, largely dotted with prisons.

The fate of two other smelters in Washington state isn't clear at this point.  The demand for aluminum has dropped, and AA sought to balance its production with the demand for product.

Delaying the inevitable by 3.5 years?

The middle class is being decimated by cheap foreign labor and other costs.   There are those that think it is no big deal and we should help the rest of the world by buying their products and doing other things.   I will refrain from a long rant, but I really don't see an end in sight to the decades long process of outsourcing labor overseas. 

I understand the world is smaller now, but at some point, we have to protect our own interests, or there wont be any interests left. 

We all can't make a living programming railfan websites?

Out

 From a guy who's good customer (that makes coal mining equipment) is laying off another 30% of their work force, this 3.5 year deal sounds pretty good.

Even us computer software folks get downsized. A factory worker,lets say at Ford, getting 3 percent annual salary increase ends up costing way too much after 30 years for that factory to keep pace with new startups in the same industry. Imagine a 100+ year old company, no way it can compete with an offshore company. Add in insurance, pensions, utilities, environmental, and Gov. taxes.
Automated assembly robots also replace people on the assembly line, but creates jobs at the robot manufacturer and repair shops.
Why spend $150 to repair a 10 year old refrig, when a new more efficient model is a few hundred dollars more?
Evolution, efficiency, profit vs cost all constantly change, both as a consumer and for manufacturing.
I repair my '05 vehicles vs. getting the new overly software controlled vehicles, because I don't trust the programmers, of which I am one.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/15 16:32 by steve_misky.

Older autoworkers went without that 3% raise the last 10 years and since 2009 new hires came in at a 40% lower wage. The new contract that "passed" claims those workers will supposedly get parity wages in 8 years(!) If that even occurs, which is doubtful, it would have taken 12 years to get back to the standard of the year 2008, and in 2023, that wage will obviously mean much less after adjusting for inflation.

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Since keeping the Massena smelters open will increase the supply of aluminum and materials produced, I wonder which other smelters will now be closed?

If there's too much aluminum (or cars, or electricity, or skilled labor, or management or medieval studies majors)  being produced, something, somewhere will end up being closed or suffer wage reductions