It's a sad day in the Steel City, kiddies.
Pittsburgh Brewing Company is seeking bankruptcy protection after the city's water authority was about to shut off its water supply.
“Well, I'm a little shocked, upset,” said Tim Sauro, of Brentwood. “I mean I've been here for approaching 20 years. Any employee would be upset.”
More than 200 workers at Pittsburgh Brewing got the word that their company is filing chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court.
“We needed to do what we had to do to protect the 200-plus workers here, not to interrupt the operations,” said Joe Piccirilli, of Pittsburgh Brewing Company. “We are running, people are working and we are going to do that as normal course of business.”
Piccirilli said the company had no alternative but to seek court protection.
The city water and sewer authority -- owed $2.3 million by the brewery -- was poised to shut off the water needed to make beer.
“We could sit back and play chicken and wonder whether they would do it or not, but I have to look at the welfare of 200 people here,” Piccirilli said. “We have ongoing operations. In the event the water would have been shut off, it could have been detrimental to what we're doing, could have affected our boiler house, and when you're running a boiler house at high temperatures, you could have had a meltdown in less than hour.”
Rather than risk a shut-down, Pittsburgh Brewing filed chapter 11 that allows them to keep running while they pay off creditors.
However, bankruptcy may not protect all the jobs. (Thanks to WJLA for the heads up.)
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