Mesabi Daily News
Opinion: Dave Lislegard

Let me start by going back to the shutdown of LTV.

Like many workers, I was thankful to have received unemployment and retraining dollars to survive that most difficult time. Regrettably, I must admit, I also at that time let myself be talked into and pushed for a BlueGreen alliance without truly thinking about what the future implications would have on our region. We were told ,and I sadly believed, that the USWA and the Sierra Club had common goals. Ten years later there are fewer jobs, plant shutdowns (Georgia-Pacific/Verso), unemployment and retraining dollars are more common, and the LTV plant, where 1,400 East Range people worked, sits because PolyMet still can’t get permits from the DNR and EPA.