November 22, 2009
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New owners for local firm
St. Joseph Packaging acquired in deal with New York competitor
St. Joseph Packaging acquired in deal with New York competitor
Folding carton manufacturer St. Joseph Packaging has been acquired by a New York-based packaging company. Several local employees were laid off.
The deal closed Saturday morning and transfers all local assets to Climax Packaging, Inc. Twelve to 14 employees were laid off on Friday at the packaging plant in the St. Joseph Industrial Park, several former employees said.
Chuck Hamilton, former St. Joseph Packaging president, confirmed some workers were laid off but said that he couldn’t comment further. He said the local plant will remain open and viable.
The company is more than 100 years old in St. Joseph and packages products for several national retailers.
Mr. Hamilton said the company will put increased focus on food packaging and take competitive advantage of having production facilities in the Midwest and East Coast. “We hope to grow business in this plant and at the New York plant,” he said.
Climax Packaging employs 240 full-time workers at its Paperboard and Packaging Divisions in New York. It is an affiliate of Climax Manufacturing Co.
After last week’s layoffs, Mr. Hamilton said the St. Joseph plant now employs about 65 people. Mr. Hamilton will stay on as sales manager.
Some former workers in St. Joseph allege that they might have been laid off due to prior worker’s compensation claims.
Chris Simmons, 32, said he had settled a compensation claim for a hurt elbow earlier this year.
“Coincidentally, everybody that got let go — that we can pinpoint — also had a worker’s comp claim against the company,” he said.
Gary Nelson, 40, said he settled a compensation claim against the company several years ago for carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands.
Mr. Nelson said he could not receive a reason on why he was fired. “The lady said they had a list of names,” he said.
Both men said they had worked for the company for more than a decade. Mr. Hamilton said he doubts each laid-off person had a worker’s claim. “They’re just not being hired by the new company,” Mr. Hamilton said, referring to Climax. He would not comment further.
A representative for Climax Packaging, who was at the former St. Joseph Packaging on Monday, declined to comment.
Ahmad Safi can be reached
at ahmadsafi@npgco.com.
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Sorry for the one or two employees who were laid off that might have legit workers comp claims, which of course they can still file, but the odds of that high of percentage of employees at a company with current worker comp situations is a joke.
Sounds to me sour grapes and a fraudulent attempt at payback. Management from other companies in this area have just took notice and will now not touch an employee that was working there because of this dishonesty.
On a job where you are doing repetitive tasks, and lifting heavy materials day after day, there is a lot of physical labor involved, and the percentage of injuries on the job will be higher than a desk job or working at WalMart. Especially, for employees who have been there 10 years or more. I beleive, that over the course of 10 or 20 years at the same job does increase the chances of having a workmans comp claim with the company. Now, if the company had safety standards and SOPS(Standard Operating Procedures) in place, and the employees were hurt because they were not following the sops, or were negligent, then the company has reason to be cautious about keeping them on as employees.
so sad to hear! i was an artist there for three years... 11 years ago. i thought it was a great place to work... sad to hear that the hamiltons no longer own it, but good to see it will stay open!
If your the new employer who do you choose to retain....
The good guys............? Or those who treat the Company as an adversary.....file claims when there is even the slightest provocation.
There probably have been some legtimate claims....and those folks are probably going to work for the new employer.
I'm sure the lawyer Mr Nelson is (probably) talking to will tell him the new employer has no duty to hire him.
People not rehired during aquisition process doesn't surprise me! This mill hasn't seen nothing yet, wait til one of your gluer machines is dismantled and brought to Climax-Lowville---job losses for both mills coming down the pipeline! Its all about money/profit, which will come at the expense of decent hardworking people losing jobs and more responsibility piled on to those who are left. I'll also bet that employee contributions toward insurance plans are going to go up too. Good luck to those that are left when the dust settles!