The time has come to recognize some realities about the prospects of the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. being re-started, and in a way, it has been apparent for some time.

The Aluminum Worker Trades Council and the steelworkers union have been working with the plant’s owner, Swiss-based Glencore, for years to bring about a re-start, as have Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester.

In a recent report by the Hungry Horse News, union negotiators offered frank opinions about the chances of Glencore taking action.

“They’re not going to restart CFAC,” one said. “It’s done.”

There have been plenty of signs that Glencore has been jerking around former workers, the city of Columbia Falls and Montana’s congressional delegation since the plant shut down in October 2009.

Probably the biggest signal came when it was learned that Glencore turned down a “Cadillac” contract offer from the Bonneville Power Administration that would have provided affordable power for five years. The extended term of the contract should have made it appealing, regardless of the unpredictable fluctuating market prices for aluminum.

More recently, union leaders have been trying to get Glencore to come to an agreement about severance for workers under a union contract, and each time they did, the company insinuated that the plant would be restarting.

At one point, the union leaders reminded Matt Lucke, Glencore’s top U.S. manager, about the good relations the unions had with Montana’s senators. Lucke reportedly replied, “I don’t think those clowns have the clout you think they have.”

Well, it’s time to put that to a test. Montana’s congressional delegation should apply every type of pressure necessary to compel Glencore to provide severance to the workers that have been strung along for so long. If it takes the Environmental Protection Agency to hold the company accountable for cleaning up hazardous materials at the CFAC site, then so be it.

Every effort should be made to get a cleanup that could just maybe clear the way for a productive use at the CFAC property some day in the future.

Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Daily Inter Lake’s editorial board.