Alcoa preparing for presidential visit

Alcoa’s Davenport Works still is working to finalize details on President Obama’s visit next week to the Riverdale plant, a company spokesman said today.

John Riches said company representatives are meeting with the president’s advance team to determine what Obama will see Tuesday when he visits the aluminum maker.

“We’re very proud to host the president,” he said. “We’ve never had a sitting president visit this plant, and as far as we can tell, we don’t think there has been a sitting president visit any Alcoa plant.”

Riches did not know specifically why the White House selected Alcoa, but believes the plant’s turnaround in the past year could have contributed to the decision. After laying off hundreds of workers during the recession, Alcoa has since called back all the workers and has been hiring additional workers to meet the increased demand for its products.

He added that the visit “highlights Alcoa and that’s a positive for Alcoa, and the fact he’s visiting Alcoa in the Quad-Cities is a positive for the Quad-Cities.”