Buy Offer Made as Price Pfister Closes Foundry

Just as Price Pfister shut down its faucet manufacturing foundry Friday, a Los Angeles businessman offered to purchase the facility and possibly rehire scores of workers who have been laid off over the past year.

The proposal was made by Lewis Williams, chief operating officer of ArcWil Financial Holdings of Los Angeles. He is offering to purchase the 94,000-square-foot foundry and its equipment for some still-to-be-determined manufacturing process utilizing the skills of former foundry workers, said Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon.

Alarcon, whose district contains the Price Pfister plant, has been working to resolve labor struggles and economic woes at the 87-year-old plant.

Details of the proposal, sent to Price Pfister and its parent company, Black & Decker, were not revealed. Price Pfister officials declined to confirm or discuss the proposal, which Alarcon said “is in the very early stages.”

Alarcon, who received a copy of the proposal Friday, said Williams formerly managed and owned foundry operations in the Chicago area. He described Williams as “very accomplished in his field and genuinely concerned about creating jobs for the local community.”

Williams was not available for comment Friday. Alarcon said he did not know how the foundry would be used.

Price Pfister, the nation’s third-largest faucet maker, closed the plant’s foundry Friday. Built in 1971, the foundry used an outdated casting technique that required twice as much lead to make faucets as more modern methods. While machining work will stay in Pacoima, much of the finishing and assembly and polishing will now be done at a plant in Mexicali.

Price Pfister spokesman Sam Wheeler said Friday the firm “is in the process of analyzing what will be done with the foundry.” At least 232 workers have been laid off in recent months, according to reports filed with the city. The work force of 1,500 has been cut to about 1,000 over the past three years, according to company officials, but workers allege the number still employed is far lower.

When the job cuts are complete, company officials said there will be 750 employees at the 25-acre Pacoima plant. Many of those workers will be employed in the company’s administrative and marketing operations, according to Wheeler.

Workers, however, charge that the company plans to eventually close all its operations in Los Angeles and transfer operations to Mexico. About 200 Price Pfister employees, including a number that have been laid off, staged a protest Friday at Teamsters union headquarters in Los Angeles, charging that the union has failed to protect them. Union officials could not be contacted.

California laws adopted after the passage of Proposition 65 in 1986 required Price Pfister and about 20 other faucet manufacturers to reduce the amount of lead that leached from their faucets into drinking water. The California state attorney general in 1993 filed suit against the manufacturers, ordering compliance with the lead reduction rules.

At the time the legal action was filed, rivals of Price Pfister and union representatives predicted the required overhaul of manufacturing techniques would cost the company tens of millions of dollars. Some feared the company would pull out of California altogether.

“They are laying off people with the most seniority and forcing people to quit,” said Vince Guzman, a maintenance worker who has been on disability leave since he was injured in September. Company officials declined to comment on the allegations.

The tentative purchase plan proposed by Williams was discussed Thursday at a meeting of a self-described “red team,” composed of local and federal elected representatives, union officials, community and business leaders, and workers.

The team was organized in October by Alarcon to cut through governmental red tape in an effort to save jobs at the foundry and assist workers who have been laid off. At the same time, the team has been trying to find a buyer or investor to take over the foundry and rehire workers.

Alarcon said he first met six weeks ago with Williams, whom Alarcon described as a successful African American businessman concerned with minority issues. Williams contacted the councilman after the team sent letters to almost 300 foundry owners throughout the nation and around the globe.

“I had a very lengthy conversation with Lew Williams and he seems to be genuinely concerned about turning struggling communities around,” Alarcon said. “He indicated he would like to have the same people who ran the foundry run it again.”

Alarcon, however, cautioned that the proposal is tentative. He said Price Pfister has not even confirmed that it is willing to sell the facility.

“We don’t want to create any false hopes,” Alarcon said. “This is by no means a done deal. But at least we do have a proposal.”