THIS IS the final installment of a three-part series on Morgantown Mylan plant employees reflecting on how the July 31 plant closure is affecting them now and looking ahead to the future.
MORGANTOWN – In this segment of our series, we talk with Ben, who asked that his full name not be used out of concern for possible repercussions.
Ben has been at Mylan, now Viatris, for 14 years. His wife also works for Viatris but isn’t affected by the closure. They have two children, one just 6 months old, and just recently bought a piece of land and built a house on it.
Ben works weekends and takes care of the kids Monday-Thursday, he said. The money they don’t spend on daycare they put toward the new house. Now that’s in jeopardy.
He’s an electrician and will be able to find work after July 31, he said. “But as for the income that Mylan provides for us, it’s going to be hard to pick up, and have that stability. … That puts a hard struggle on us financially to keep our house.”
Ben is one of about 850 plant employees — out of a total 1,431 facing job loss — represented by United Steelworkers Local 8-957. The union is engaged in stalled severance package talks with Viatris. So he doesn’t know what’s next.
“I’m basically waiting to see what goes on with Mylan right now,” he said. “If I go out on my own, the income’s not guaranteed. … It puts us in a hard situation. It’s very stressful to try to figure out the next step of life. … The biggest thing for me is my family. I worry how to provide for them.”
Like many of his colleagues, he expressed frustration with Viatris for shutting a major domestic pharmaceutical plant in order to save money by offshoring jobs — a plant so efficient it’s had zero product recalls, a point many have made. “Nothing left that facility unless it was 100%.”
He continued, “We were able to build the house that we wanted and now all that’s pulled out from underneath your feet. What do you do? It’s political. Its corporate greed that my job’s going overseas. It absolutely infuriates me.”
He’s also one of many who question the quality of the medicine that will be produced in India, China, Australia, and shipped back to the U.S. — to increase Viatris’ profit margin. He doesn’t see himself taking imported product.
Ben said there are other couples working at what was Mylan, friends of theirs facing double job loss and zero income.
“Just seeing the emotional stress it’s put on them and their relationships and their families, it is tough to watch.”
TWEET David Beard @dbeardtdp EMAIL dbeard@dominionpost.com
