Facing an Unknown Future

Tony and Sue Valovich standing outside Henniges Automotive. Henniges will be closing by the end of 2011

"Welland is going to become a ghost town,” says Tony Valovich, 49 of Welland, Ont. “There are no jobs here.”

Tony and his wife, Sue, 52, both work at Henniges Automotive in Welland. They were looking forward to being able to retire in a few years, but were “shocked” when they, and about 300 other workers at the plant, were told Henniges will be shutting down production by the end of 2011.

“I couldn’t believe it,“ says Sue. “We all knew the writing was on the wall, but it was still a shock. Everybody was numb. It felt like somebody had just died.”

Tony agrees. “It felt like we were at a funeral home. Many of us just stared into space and didn’t know what to think. It really felt like a death.”

Henniges, on Kennedy Street in Welland, supplies parts for other automotive companies such as GM. A letter was sent out to employees from Henniges Automotive CEO, Robert DePierre on March 1st stating the decision to close the plant was based “in part upon the fact that it’s been increasingly difficult to win business for the plant because of the relative high costs associated with production. These costs are related to a number of factors which have contributed to the plant’s overall uncompetitive position. Although the overall company is financially solid, we’ve been unable to identify new business for the Welland facility and this situation is not expected to improve over time.”

Tony says it all comes down to greed. “It’s absolutely brutal. The rich are getting richer and the middle class is getting wiped out.”

“It’s sad that the roughly $8 million dollars in sales we made for them last year wasn’t enough,” says Sue. “I feel sorry for corporate that $8 million wasn’t enough. Are you kidding me? They should try living on our $42,000 a year (before taxes); and that’s if you have over time and don’t get laid off.”

Tony has been working at Henniges for 28 years and Sue has been there for 19.

“I was 21 when I started,” says Tony. “I feel totally cheated out of life. I feel cheated out of my retirement. I feel cheated out of what I deserve. It’s awful. I’m putting in my 30, 40 years, damn right I deserve retirement. Damn right I deserve a pension. It’s what my dad did. You work for a company for all those years and retirement is what you all look forward to. And now, instead of retiring at 55, I‘m working until 60 or 65 because we‘re going to have to take minimum wage jobs and start over.”

Tony says that although corporate says Henniges will be closed by the end of 2011, he believes it will be sooner.

“They say the plant will be shut by the end of the year, but I want everyone to be aware that is the maximum date,” he explains. “They said they are going to honour our contract, which contractually they have to give us six months notice. They told us March 1st, so six months is September 1st. That’s the earliest, by our contract, that they can close the plant.”

They say the plant closure will hit them “tremendously” because they will lose their entire household income.

“It’s given us a good life. Fishing trips every summer. You know, yeah, I’m not rich, but the way I look at it is we were given a decent enough, small piece of the pie to live and be happy,” Tony says.

“We might have to sell the house and get an apartment with a minimum wage job,” says Sue. “But there’s a lot of other people who will be worse off than we are because they have little kids. We don’t have any kids at home now.”

“Susie and I will survive,” Tony says. “It’s okay if we have to eat hot dogs every day to get by. I feel sorry for those who have little children. What the hell are they going to do? Single moms and single dads too. There are a lot of people in a really bad position.”

They say the plant is filled with friends they consider a “second family” and, in fact, they met through work 17 years ago and were married four years later.

“I will miss my family the most. You spend a third of your life at work so they become your second family,” says Tony. “I started having tears well up in my eyes seeing some of those people after we were told. It was emotional. I see them more than I see my own brother and sister. You get to know these people.”

They say no matter how upset they feel business will continue at the plant until they shut the doors.

“The only option we have is to do our job, work 100% and smile. We have to swallow our pride and do our job,” says Sue. “I also want to say that I have full confidence in our union, and that they are going to do the best that they can to get us a better severance package (right now employees are entitled to one week's pay per year employed by the plant to a maximum of 26 weeks). We have the best people there doing the job. Absolutely.”

Tony wants the people who decided to close the plant to learn a lesson. Life is not all about profit.

“Last year corporate gave us turkeys as a Christmas bonus for the first time in years. We know now that it was just a tax right off for them,” he says. “But the difference between them and us? They’re not making enough profit at our place and they shut us down. Me and Susie, as soon as we got the turkeys we dropped them off at the Hope Centre. We can afford a Christmas dinner; so we gave ours away so that someone who can’t afford one had a good Christmas. Guess I’m going to the Hope Centre next year for dinner.”

Tony and Sue Valovich on their wedding day almost 13 years ago. They wanted a photo in front of Henniges (formally GenCorp) because it is where they met.

Published in Niagara This Week- March 24, 2011