Warren calls for more manufacturing jobs in Bay State
Date: 2/6/2012
Feb. 6, 2012By Katelyn Gendron
katelyn@thereminder.comEAST LONGMEADOW — When U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren made a campaign stop at Lenox Tools on Jan. 31 she was greeted by State Sen. Gale Candaras with a smile and the title of “Sen. Warren.”
Candaras quickly apologized for the error and the two shared a laugh. “It was purely accidental but maybe it’s a portent of things to come,” Candaras told Reminder Publications. Warren hopes to unseat Republican Sen. Scott Brown in this year’s election.
While touring Lenox Tools with Candaras and State Rep. Brian Ashe, Warren noted the importance of keeping manufacturing jobs, specifically precision machinists, in Massachusetts. “This is about a well trained workforce and re-thinking tax breaks, which should go to companies such as Lenox that keeps jobs here [as opposed to outsourcing them].”
Lenox Tools is currently looking to add 40 more machinists to its workforce of 750, according to Dave Robinson, director of operations, who noted that the company had its best year ever in 2011 with more than $300 million in sales. The most difficult part of the hiring process, he noted, is finding machinists with the proper qualifications.
Tim O’Brien, senior manager of Learning and Development at Lenox Tools, explained that the company has partnered with local vocational schools and colleges “to breed new talent.”
“This is really about the direction things go. If parents feel that there’s no future in vocational schools they’ll send their kids to public schools. People need to see a real future in manufacturing,” Warren said.
O’Brien noted that the majority of the workforce at Lenox Tools is from Greater Springfield or graduates of local institutions such as Western New England University.
“Our average employee has been here 28 years and that’s a clear indicator of how we feel about them,” O’Brien said, noting that he started at Lenox as a machinist more than two decades ago.
“Kids are looking for something that’s going to go somewhere, something that will have a tomorrow,” Warren said, noting that careers at Lenox Tools and other manufacturers in Massachusetts can provide a promising future.
