Pacific Tube Shutting Down, Laying Off Workers in Stages

After nearly 60 years in business, steel producer Pacific Tube Co. is shutting down and has laid off 130 employees, company officials said Monday. It plans to let go its remaining work force, an additional 60 workers, in the next few months.

Citing unspecified financial reasons, Commerce-based Pacific Tube will close its one plant and headquarters at a date yet to be determined, payroll manager Lois Bishop said. Pacific Tube, a subsidiary of Superior Group Inc. in Radnor, Pa., made $35 million in revenue in 1999.

The company began laying off workers in all ranks Dec. 13. A majority of the employers are members of the United Steel Workers union and were given 60-day notices as required by federal law. No employees were offered severance packages, Bishop said.

Former crane operator Joe Hernandez, who worked for the company for 30 years, said he expected some sort of severance package.

“They threw us out the door like animals with nothing to offer us after all the years we gave them,” Hernandez said. “A lot of us are upset.”