MASSENA -- The Town Council on Wednesday joined the Village Board of Trustees in passing a motion voicing their support of Sen. Charles Schumer and Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s attempts to persude Alcoa to not slash nearly 500 jobs at its west plant.

The village passed theirs the previous night. There were no dissenting votes among either body of lawmakers.

On Nov. 3, Alcoa announced they would close down their west plant smelter and not follow through with their plans to modernize the east plant, breaking their deal with the state to maintain at least 750 jobs in exchange for cut-rate NYPA electricity.

“Governor Cuomo and U.S. Senator Schumer recognize that Alcoa is absolutely fundamental to the local communities and … have called upon Alcoa to continue the company’s operation and have pledged to work vigorously to convince Alcoa to change their plan,” the village resolution reads.

On Tuesday, Cuomo’s office said he wrote a letter to Alcoa CEO Klaus Kleinfeld saying the company is not being a “good corporate citizen” in cutting operations and cutting the workforce at Alcoa-Massena by 487 jobs after the state has made its best effort to keep the operations profitable.

“The recent announcement that Alcoa was closing operations in Massena was, quite frankly, shocking,” the governor wrote. “For years, New York State has gone to great lengths to keep Alcoa's operations running in Massena. More specifically, we have given tens of millions of dollars in benefits annually over the past several years - doing everything we can to ensure that hundreds of people - many of whom have devoted their working lives to the company - could keep their jobs and livelihoods intact.

“It is time for Alcoa to prove that it is a good corporate citizen and do the right thing: commit to continuing its smelting operations in Massena.”

“From the minute we learned about these devastating cuts I immediately pressed upon Alcoa CEO Klaus Kleinfeld to reverse course and save these jobs. The governor and I are doing everything possible to find a solution that keeps the facility open and protects the extremely productive workers who work there now. We are not giving up the fight, and we are doing everything in our power to change their minds, change their plans, and protect and restore these existing jobs,” Schumer said in an earlier statement.