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Local Suppliers Hope Auto Bailout Comes Through

CREIGHTON (KDKA) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: At the Pittsburgh Glass Works, the plant has cut back to a four-day work week.
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With a rescue plan for the nation's Big 3 automakers in doubt, many local workers are worried.

More than 300,000 people in Pennsylvania depend on the car industry for their jobs, including many local suppliers.

At the Pittsburgh Glass Works, the plant has cut back to a four-day work week.

"The reason for the scheduled downtime is because we don't have the demand from our customers to fill this factory up on a full five or six day week schedule," Richard Hellman said.

And now with a rescue plan in trouble and their two major clients, GM and Chrysler on the verge of bankruptcy, workers are fearful the other shoe is about to drop.

When things are running full throttle, this factory fabricates two million glass windshields a year -- that's 40,000 windshields a week. It's a thriving manufacturing business that workers fear could now be on the verge of extinction.

Pittsburgh Glass Works is shutting down one plant in Ontario, Canada, and needs to shut down two more of the remaining nine. Whether that number grows will greatly depend on whether the Big 3 survive.

With the White House saying it will intervene, some workers are relieved, but clearly, no one is out of the woods.

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