When the Plant Closed, These Workers Were Left Behind
The shuttering of the Mylan pharmaceutical plant in Morgantown, West Virginia left more than 1,400 people out of work.
Maximillian Alvarez
The Mylan pharmaceutical plant in Morgantown, West Virginia, has been in operation since 1965, producing low-cost generic drugs and providing good-paying jobs for generations of workers. On July 31, the plant (now owned by Viatris, Inc.) closed, upending the lives of over 1,400 workers, the economy of Morgantown, and the future of generic drug manufacturing in the U.S. In this mini-cast, we talk to Carla Shultz, who has worked at the plant for 13 years, and legendary journalist Laura Flanders, who recently reported on the plant closure on The Laura Flanders Show, about the last-ditch efforts to keep the plant open and what it will mean for working people in Morgantown and beyond if those efforts are unsuccessful.
Additional links/info below…
- Join our Working People listener hang session on Monday, August 16, from 8-9:30pm ET. Here’s the zoom link
- Laura’s Twitter
- Laura Flanders, The Laura Flanders Show, “Big Pharma vs The People: The Fight To Save America’s Largest Generic Drug Manufacturer”
- Fraiser Kansteiner, Fierce Pharma, “Feds Throw Lifeline to Shuttered Viatris Plant in West Virginia, But Its Fate Remains Uncertain”
- Democracy Now!, “Workers Beg Joe Manchin to Save West Virginia Pharma Plant as His Daughter Walks Away with $31M”
Permanent links below…
- Working People Patreon page
- Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!
- Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
- In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
- The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page
Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)
- Jules Taylor, “Working People Theme Song”
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Maximillian Alvarez is editor-in-chief at the Real News Network and host of the podcast Working People, available at InTheseTimes.com. He is also the author of The Work of Living: Working People Talk About Their Lives and the Year the World Broke.
