Deborah Rudacille

"Stockton’s city manager, Robert Deis, is focusing on cutting retiree health benefits instead of pensions, because he said the retiree health plan was completely unfunded — as opposed to its pension being 70 percent funded — and the cost was growing at a faster rate."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/business/untouchable-pensions-in-calif...

March 5, 2005

On March 2, The Baltimore Brew reported that RG Steel plans to idle the storied tin mill at Sparrows Point.
http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2012/03/02/rg-steel-plans-to-idle-sparrows-...
I can't help but think of the former tin floppers that I interviewed for ROOTS and how sad they must be to hear this news.

January 12, 2012

About 30 laid off blast furnace workers have been called back to work at Sparrows Point. Good news though the long-term outlook is unclear. More on the situation at the Point here:

http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2012/01/07/ore-ship-arrives-at-steel-mill-s...

I was in Baltimore this past weekend for the holiday and tried to get some info about the Sparrows Point shutdown. No one is talking. Or rather, no one knows anything more than the limited info reported so far by Steel Market Update, Steel Guru, and Baltimore Brew: steelmaking operations suspended, 700 workers furloughed, machine shop shut down with equipment being sold off, limited finishing operations to fill old orders, 'indefinite' shutdown....

I spoke to a young steelworker who was part of the crew that worked on the shutdown process.

"The whole plant is shut down. From my understanding everybody but people in my department got sent home. I work on the furnace. We had to be there to work on it for the shutdown process. Even RG in Warren Ohio is shut down. Things aren't looking good. We're hoping to have a ten week layoff at the most. ugh, I worked last night and wanted to cry as I'm 200 feet in the air shutting down the furnace. It's just depressing."

Baltimore Sun coverage here: