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Confident_End_3848 t1_j29gvld wrote

Having worked across the fence line from coke ovens, I understand the concern. But also consider the practical, political implications. You will be eliminating a lot good paying blue collar jobs which is the perfect environment for Trump like politicians to move in and blame the tree huggers.

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Itsjustataco t1_j2a8mge wrote

A lot, how many people work there?

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vVSidewinderVv t1_j2agtrd wrote

The place operates round the clock in 12 hr shifts. The entire Mon Valley Works employs around 3,000 people, almost all union workers. Can't find anything for numbers at Clairton specifically.

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SamPost t1_j2axjao wrote

120 at the coke ovens. Which is the culprit. Coke is produced elsewhere, and with modern pollution controls that don't violate the law.

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trail-coffee t1_j2ba8kt wrote

Yeah, I’d prefer they clean it up rather than shut down. Either retrofit or tear it down and rebuild

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kesi t1_j2ajinl wrote

I saw the number 1100 quoted once, maybe by Fetterman

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AntiqueDistance5652 t1_j2bkd22 wrote

These few hundred people need to lose their job if they're giving us all serious health problems from the pollution. The loss of those jobs is more than worth it. It would be cheaper to just pay those people to do nothing at their previous salaries than to endure this public health nightmare.

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Neither-Camp-1352 t1_j2d2rzb wrote

It's more like tens of thousands of jobs....there is an entire economy built around those mills. There will be ridiculous ripple effects to outright closing those mills...

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Nekrosis666 t1_j2aqsp3 wrote

Yeah, my thoughts when people talk about "Just shut it all down!!!" is "Okay, and what do you do with the people who are now unemployed?". The obvious solution, at least imo, would be to have some kind of program in place to transition current workers at places like Clairton to a different job where they can receive paid training. Something they won't need a degree for, and something not too crazily different from their current work. You'd want to make the change as smooth and painless as possible for everyone so that the people who will inevitably whine and moan about it don't rally all the unemployed workers and their families behind them.

But of course that would require people in charge actually caring about workers at all.

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SamPost t1_j2axbco wrote

Harmful industries shouldn't be continued as some kind of jobs program.

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Nekrosis666 t1_j2ayc3v wrote

I didn't say anywhere in that that it should be the same industry. I meant that they should be transitioned away from this industry to different jobs that they could reasonably do. If we have to kill off a place where people work, we should at least try to care about the people who will inevitably get left behind now that the job they've been doing for years, possibly decades, is defunct. Finding opportunities for them in jobs that won't harm the environment or other people that they'd be well-qualified for is the only thing I can think of doing that wouldn't potentially ruin their lives.

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NunzAndRoses t1_j2dh935 wrote

The people who just want to pull the plug on those mills clearly don’t know the history of the area. We already tried that once and it’s turned all of those areas in to what we call “economically depressed regions” (shitholes)

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