Garrity helped lead super polluter that offshored jobs

Stacy Garrity, the Republican candidate for Pennsylvania governor, helped lead a corporation that offshored jobs and dumped hazardous chemicals into waterways.

Garrity held at least nine positions at Global Tungsten & Powders from 1987 to 2021, the most recent being vice president of government affairs. The company produces refractory metal powders and related products.

Garrity has touted her business experience as a qualification for public office. Her campaign website details her rise from “accountant at Global Tungsten & Powders Corp. to becoming the first of two female vice presidents at the company.”

Earlier this year, she told the Susquehanna Valley Center for Public Policy that she traveled the world negotiating deals for the corporation and was “in a different country every month.”

Global Tungsten & Powders carried out at least three major layoffs from 2008 to 2019, reducing its Towanda, PA, workforce from 980 employees to 500, a 48% decrease. About 200 workers accepted voluntary furloughs to avoid layoffs.

In this same period, the corporation gradually increased its foreign workforce, including at a Czech facility where Garrity was managing director from 2011 to 2019. It’s not clear what role, if any, Garrity played in the restructuring decisions.

Global Tungsten & Powders also scaled up hiring in this period at a Finnish facility that Garrity says she helped negotiate the acquisition of in 2015.

The corporation has faced other controversies.

In 2018, Global Tungsten & Powders was identified as a super polluter by the Environmental Integrity Project. This came on the heels of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fining the company $22,281 for failing to report that it accidentally released 213 pounds of anhydrous ammonia into the atmosphere.

The EPA classifies the gas as an “extremely hazardous substance.”

Earlier this year, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PDEP) said it was investigating claims that the company dumped 100 gallons of naphthalene into the Susquehanna River, which provides drinking water to 6 million people. Naphthalene is known to be toxic to aquatic life.

Garrity was elected Pennsylvania treasurer in 2021. She is now trying to unseat Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro. Her campaign has been endorsed by President Donald Trump.