Jay Rockefeller: “I am in this Chamber with my colleague, Senator Joe Manchin, who has as much interest in this as I do and feels the…”

“I am in this Chamber with my colleague, Senator Joe Manchin, who has as much interest in this as I do and feels the happiness from a wonderful event which will happen, we hope, tomorrow in West Virginia, which will not necessarily be a moment that most people around the country or even in this body will notice, but it is an enormous moment to the people of West Virginia because it has been a long festering problem that we believe will be ratified tomorrow. What am I talking about? Tomorrow the retirees at Century Aluminum in Ravenswood, WV, hopefully, are going to ratify a decision that has been reached by the Steelworkers, led by a local heroine, an icon of Appalachia, Karen Gorrell, who has stood out all night by the roadside protesting. Back in 2009, Century Aluminum--and aluminum is a volatile industry but very much of an up-industry now--simply shut down. Hundreds of jobs and hundreds of retirees and their families were just cut out and cut off. Periods of negotiation went on with Century Aluminum under the particular management then, but it wasn't going anywhere. There wasn't a lot of goodwill that I was able to detect. Then comes the kind of change you really want to see. You start with good people, good workers. It is a hard job. It pays pretty good wages, good benefits--not defined benefits in terms of health care but VIPA benefits, which are benefits nevertheless for retirees.…”