Crestline glass plant is hiring

Pittsburgh Glass Works is experiencing growing pains, and north central Ohio workers are benefiting.

The operation, formerly known as PPG, hired 200 employees between 2008 and the start of this year. Now the company is looking to hire 40 to 60 more to fill a growing demand for automotive glass. "It´s a great problem to have," said Jim Phillips, human resources director at the 5066 U.S. 30 plant near the Crawford-Richland county line. "The majority of those have really been (hired) since September of last year, about 110 to 120 since that time, and we´re getting ready to bring on another 25. It´s a large number."

The plant operates three shifts, five days a week. "We´ve had so much business in the last few months that we´re running seven days a week, if not the whole plant, at least half of it on the weekends, also," Phillips said.

That´s a good situation for everyone.

"Our problem now in hiring so many new people is stress on the organization, because you have so much green talent," Phillips said. "Two, we´re losing so many of our long-term committed employees that have been here, that are very knowledgeable. We had about 34 retirements last year and about 30 the year before that. And that really hurts.

"Most of our employees have been here high-30s to low-40s years of service and they´ve grown and developed and learned on the job, and they just know how to do it." Pittsburgh Glass Works hired in 2008, but then suffered a business downturn, Phillips said.

"We were impacted just like all the other industries. GM is a very large customer of ours. We did have some layoffs and we did lose some of our employees during that three months of layoffs," Phillips said. "Since August of 2009, every five to six weeks, groups of 15 to 20-plus new employees are being brought into the local company."

Entry level positions start at $9 per hour, with opportunities for advancement and higher wages and benefits. As the local plant continues to grow, Phillips said, engineers and supervisors will be needed in the next few months. The facility opened in 1959 and employed up to 1,000 workers at one point. However, Richard Krehnovi, supervisor of environmental health and safety at Pittsburgh Glass Works, said automation allows for three times the work to be done with one third of the people.

Since 2008, local hourly employees are members of United Auto Workers Local 3061. Pittsburgh Glass Works officially launched business operations in October 2008. Affiliates of Kohlberg & Company own 60 percent, and PPG retains about 40 percent of equity software in Pittsburgh Glass Works, Phillips said. Phillips said when Kohlberg bought the local plant, they reduced the company´s manufacturing base.

"They closed a couple operations in Canada and they closed an operation in Michigan," he said. "They are very good at going out and getting business and getting leads and they´ve really plussed up our business and been aggressive." Phillips said Kohlberg is investing in two new production lines. "We´ve been deemed one of the high priority plants because of our good working relationships and because we´ve had a strong history of producing a good, quality product," Phillips said.

Darrel Criswell, 24, of Galion, began working as an inspector at Pittsburgh Glass Works in November. "It´s a real good job," he said as he inspected rear windows coming off an assembly line. David Skaggs of Galion, who has worked at the plant for two years, was busy Tuesday "checking fixture," making sure a rear window would fit into a vehicle, right down to the half-millimeter.