Page 37 - BusinessWest February 7, 2022

been in this business 40 years, and I’ve never seen the size of the increases and the length of time they’ve stuck around.”
OMG Inc. in Agawam uses steel wire and flat stock for its line of screws and fasteners, as well as chemicals for the adhesives it makes for its roofing divi- sion. Since the pandemic, purchasing raw materials has been challenging and increasingly expensive.
“We often saw a doubling if not tri- pling of prices for our raw materials,” said Hubert McGovern, president and CEO of OMG.
While the supply situation has improved in the last couple of months, McGovern said, when materials do arrive, the next challenge is having enough workers to make the products and get them out the door. Between increased competition for workers and COVID-19, it’s difficult to stay fully staffed.
“At the height of the most recent COVID spike, 10% to 15% of our work- force was affected at some level of COVID quarantine,” McGovern said.
The jump in COVID cases also made the last weeks of 2021 difficult for Mestek, the Westfield manufacturer of HVAC equipment. Even though employees will often pitch in when there are staff shortages, delays still occur, said Peter Letendre, plant man- ager. “Lead times for certain products have been extended because we were lacking raw materials or we didn’t have the right people in place.”
One positive test can affect many employees. As an example, Graham said if one worker in the shipping area tests positive for COVID, the three other workers in that department also need to be tested. Each one who tests positive cannot return to work for five days, even if they have no symptoms.
“It causes the kind of staffing prob- lems where we can’t run a line or drive the forklift trucks if those folks aren’t here,” he explained.
While COVID contributes to labor issues, the larger problem every indus- try faces involves getting and keeping employees. Kate Keiderling, Human Resources director at OMG, called it a continuous struggle to find the right people.
“We are always looking at pay rates, and we’ve added a sign-on bonus fol- lowed by a retention bonus if the per- son stays six months,” she said. “We’ve also increased the bonus we pay employees who refer others to work with us.”
Back in the fall, Mestek began offer- ing attendance bonuses for workers who put in a full 40-hour week.
“It certainly improved attendance and retention,” Letendre said. “Per- haps more importantly, it has helped us in attracting new employees into manufacturing.”
For many years, Toner Plastics ran three full shifts primarily because plastic fabricating machines are most efficient when they continuously run.
“We are always looking at pay rates, and we’ve added a sign-on bonus followed by a retention bonus if the person stays six months.”
nessWest. With this schedule, everyone reaches 40 hours by Thursday, and if someone wants to work overtime or make up a day because of an absence, they can do so on Friday.
“This way, there’s no loss of income for missing a day, our production lines continue to run, and we are able to keep orders going out the door.”
Challenges to Expansion
In a different labor market, Leten- dre would have a ‘good’ problem. Last year, Mestek acquired Slant/Fin, a Long Island manufacturer of baseboard heaters and one of Mestek’s main com- petitors. This year, Slant/Fin’s equip-
KATE KEIDERLING
Long before concerns about labor shortages, Graham said the third shift was the most difficult to staff and was always the shift with the fewest work- ers. With the pressures of COVID con-
cerns and worker shortages, he recon- figured the work week at Toner.
“We decided to eliminate the third shift and move to two shifts of 10-hour days, four days a week,” he told Busi-
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