Assemblyman Michael Benedetto, a Democrat from the Bronx, joined Assemblyman Steve Hawley on a tour of Hawley's 139th District, which included a stop late in the afternoon yesterday at Chapin Manufacturing International Inc, in Batavia.
The tour started in Lyndonville and included a couple of farms in the area, continued through Medina, and then stopped at LandPro Equipment in Oakfield, Genesee Community College, and then Chapin before a visit to Batavia Downs Gamiong & Hotel before dinner at Alex's Place.
Hawley has been conducting these tours for Downstate colleagues now for a few years and they are reciprocal. Hawley will visit Benedetto's district. It's a chance, Hawley said, for representatives from two halves of the state to get to know the whole state better and the unique issues faced in different parts of the state.
At Chapin, Benedetto was given a presentation on the company by CEO Jim Campbell before a tour of the factory.
Chapin employees 300 people at its U.S. locations, which now includes a plant in Ohio. It makes sprayers and spreaders, primarily, but also has a line of bird feed made in Michigan.
Campbell described its bird feed as tasty and nutritious to help birds in the Northeast store energy to make it through winter.
One of the biggest challenges for the company right now is finding qualified workers, Campbell said.
"If you want a job in our area today, you can work, absolutely," Campbell said.
The tight labor market is requiring Chapin to change its approach to recruiting employees.
"We used to use the temp-to-permanent model but the people you have out there in temps today are not the people you’re after," Campbell said. "The people you’re after are now working for somebody else. They’re not going to leave a full-time job without a good opportunity to work for us."
Benedetto said he often hears on the floor of the Assembly that New York is not a business-friendly state. He asked Campbell if that was his experience in dealing with New York.
Campbell said if his company were to look at building a 100,000-square-foot addition to its facility it would cost in New York $7 million.
"I can build it in Ohio for $1 million," Campbell said. "It's a huge difference."
Campbell's other concern is the skyrocketing costs of New York's workers' compensation insurance, which is now the highest in the United States.
In photos below, William Kegler, director of operations, is conducting the tour.
Yea, there temp to permanent
Yea, there temp to permanent never worked because the union wouldn`t allow any new workers to be hired. Everyone would get let go just before their permanent hire time would come up. They would hire a constant group to do re-work and fix the mistakes of their union workers. Don`t blame the temp workers! There are plenty of workers who wanted to be hired on full time but that was never an option.