Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Friday, March 10, 2006
Pittsburgh organizations dependent on philanthropic funding from Alcoa Inc. should remember that this is not your father’s aluminum company.
Alcoa, created in the Pittsburgh region in 1888, has been a fine corporate citizen. The Alcoa Foundation it created in 1952 had been very generous to local nonprofit organizations. The foundation contributed $4.1 million in Western Pennsylvania in 2001. But only $1.5 million last year.
And the taxpayers have been very generous to Alcoa. It received $8.4 million in public subsidies for the construction of its corporate center on the North Side that was completed in 1998.
But by 2000, Alcoa opened a New York City office for top executives. In 2001, Alcoa CEO Alain Belda said corporate headquarters would remain here. On Feb. 17 of this year, Alcoa filed a report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stating its principal office was in New York.
It was similar to when the Baltimore Colts football team moved to Indianapolis in the dead of night.
An Alcoa spokesman called the move “a logistical thing.” Actually, it’s an integrity thing.
In the four-minute video about Alcoa on its Web site, the international marketplace was referenced 11 times. Pittsburgh, not at all.
There are 1.5 million reasons why local organizations dependent on Alcoa’s generosity should have a backup plan.
Call it a logistical thing.