Washington, D.C. – Yesterday, U.S. Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) penned a letter to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan and the Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, Jonathan Kanter, urging the agencies to investigate the chain of events that led to Anchor Hocking’s decision to close their Charleroi glass manufacturing plant. Senator Fetterman also demanded the agencies hold Anchor Hocking and its private equity partners accountable if wrongdoing occurred.
The letter reads in part: “Anchor Hocking and the private equity firms responsible for this decision aren’t just putting more than 300 Pennsylvanians out of a job, they’re also taking a swing at Charleroi’s identity. I want to be absolutely certain that the federal government has pursued all possible avenues for recourse, so I urge you to investigate the events and transactions that preceded this announcement, including Instant Brands’s bankruptcy proceedings in 2023 and the apparent acquisition of Instant Brands’s housewares division by Anchor Hocking and Center Lane in March 2024.”
In early September, glass manufacturer Anchor Hocking announced that it would close its plant in Charleroi, PA by the end of the year. The decision will close a factory that’s operated in Charleroi for 132 years and put more than 300 union workers out of a job. The facility was taken over by Anchor Hocking, which is owned by a private equity firm, in March 2024. In the letter Senator Fetterman highlights the troubling practice of private equity swooping in and quickly relocating in hopes of making more money elsewhere, which hurts both the community and the workers who have powered these plants for generations.
“The story of corporations coming into Western Pennsylvania’s communities and stripping them for parts is all too common,” Senator Fetterman wrote in the letter. “For 14 years, I was mayor of a town that saw 90% of its people leave after the steel industry abandoned the very workers who built our country. Now, we’re seeing private equity firms do the same thing in Charleroi: buy up a productive factory, strip it for parts, fire the workers, and let corporate executives collect fat bonuses. It’s despicable.”
The full letter can be found here.
