WORKING CONCERN
Local employer: Attracting skilled laborers is difficult
EASTON, N.Y. » Workforce development, renewable energy and infrastructure are key issues U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik discussed with officials at one of the area’s larger manufacturing employers Tuesday.
About one-third of Hollingsworth & Vose company’s 200 employees live in Saratoga County.
But the firm has difficulty attracting skilled electronic, instrumentation and mechanical workers despite a $21-per-hour entry level wage and attractive benefits package including health care, Plant Manager Stacey Campbell said.
“It’s not just here, it’s across the country,” he told Stefanik, R-Willsboro, a House Education and Workforce Committee member. “We do oldfashioned manufacturing mixed with new technology. It’s hard to get young people, fresh out of high school, interested in that.”
The company also faces stiff competition for work-
ers from other large manufacturing employers such as GlobalFoundries and paper mills in Fort Edward (Irving Tissue), South Glens Falls (SCA) and Glens Falls (Finch Paper).
Stefanik, who is seeking re-election to a third term in November, toured the firm’s Easton plant the same day federal workers returned to work following a government shutdown.
Earlier this month, Hollingsworth & Vose launched a formal apprenticeship program, with help from the state Labor Department, in an attempt to develop new workers. It also provides tuition reimbursement for employees, such as welders, who take courses to improve their skills.
The Easton plant, bordering the Battenkill River, is the largest of three local facilities owned by the Massachusetts-based company, which has a worldwide presence in places such as India, China, the United Kingdom and Germany. A research and development center is located near the Easton plant, and there’s a smaller manufacturing plant upstream in Greenwich.
The Easton and Greenwich manufacturing plants date to the late 19th century, when they were paper and lumber mills, respectively. Hollingsworth & Vose purchased both sites in 1956, and they’ve since been transformed to make an entirely different line of products including many for the automotive industry.
For example, it makes the paper that goes in air filters for all types of equipment, ranging from gas turbines to both small and large vehicles including farm tractors.
Another area of production is battery separators, made from fiberglass, which wrap around positive and negative plates.
“Production here today is going to Indonesia and China,” Technology Manager Stephanie Picard said. “It’s very global work.”
The local plants get 40 percent of their energy from renewable sources including a large new solar complex, and hydro stations at three dams the company owns on the Battenkill. This helps offset production costs, but Campbell said the hydro stations aren’t generating at full capacity. Ongoing manufacturing costs have kept the company from upgrading its hydro facilities, he said
“Hydro is a huge opportunity for this region,” Stefanik said. “We’re trying to improve incentives to make these investments in hydro.”
However, one of the company’s biggest immediate concerns is a county Route 113 bridge replacement project over the Battenkill scheduled to begin this summer. Traffic to and from the Easton plant will be detoured during construction. Bids for the job are expected to be issued in March.
Stefanik offered to provide whatever support her office can to expedite the project.
“It really has to go well,” Campbell said. “We can’t shut down.”
“The potential impact to our operation could be significant,” said Ron Zimmerman, a Moreau resident and plant operations manager.