Filaments Workers Continue Search For Employment
Local Jobs Fair Helpful
Tuesday January 23, 2007
By Mike Cameron
It was a packed parking lot at Middlebury American Legion Post # 49 that greeted former employees of the now closed Specialty Filaments Manufacturing Plant of East Middlebury on a cold Thursday morning, January 19, 2007. The local plant closing has sent shock waves reverberating through this community even as The Addison County Chamber of Commerce and The Vermont Department of Labor joined forces with Addison County Development Corporation and The Addison County Work Force Investment Board to host a Jobs Fair at the Legion.
The Fair drew many of the 175 SFI workers who were looking for jobs after being stunned by their recent loss of employment.
“It’s difficult for everyone who lost their job,” a former SFI employee told The Voice while comparing information with some of his former fellow workers outside the Legion building. “It was a shock to actually get the word that my job was lost,” he said.
Another longtime SFI staffer expressed the same sentiment after assuming like so many others that the local plant was going to be used as a consolidation facility for the company after it closed its Burlington Vermont operation in the late fall of 2006. That closure occurred 2-years after a “shore-up” overture was completed by The Vermont Economic Development Authority, (VEDA), to provide SFI with guaranteed loans designed to make the company more financially stable in 2004.
The company has indicated that off shore competition factored heavily in the decision to eventually close the East Middlebury plant as well leaving 175 employees out of work.
The Jobs Fair offered workers a chance to meet a wide range of business and manufacturing representatives. 30-individual firms attended the event.
According to Addison County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, Linda Stearns. “ The American Legion was wonderful to provide us with their facilities gratis and we are grateful to all of the businesses from all over the state who sent representatives to help us with what has been a very concentrated effort to present employment opportunities on such short notice.”
Even with this seemingly diverse group of employment options made available to former SFI workers, one long time employee explained to The Valley Voice that the plastic extrusion business requires a highly defined skill, particularly for those who operated machinery and is not easily transferrable to another career path even in the manufacturing sector. That said, the individual planned to get as much information at the fair as possible to examine new possibilities for the future. Individuals who spoke with The Valley Voice conveyed their gratitude to the local and state officials who organized the Jobs Fair.
Specialty Filaments has subsequently filed for Chapter #7 Bankruptcy Protection. Liquidation of the companies assets in ongoing.
State and local officials, many of whom were instrumental in presenting the Jobs Fair are currently working with SFI and other potentially interested parties to salvage as many lost jobs as possible.
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