The employees at Lavington’s glass plant, who will soon be out of a job, are being 
applauded for their experience, skill and dedication which has profited the company. “We have always been the plant that if no one else can make that bottle, they send it to us,” said a staff member, who wishes to remain anonymous. The employee explains that plant owner Owens-Illinois, which announced the plant will be closing Oct. 31, is known specifically for the products that come out of Lavington. “There’s a long list of customers that want our glass,” he said, listing specialty glassware for U.S. markets like California. “The employees are the ones that make the quality of glass. It’s the experience,” said the 23-year-employee, who adds he’s not even at the top of seniority, he’s only somewhere in the middle. “This is all they know and they’re the best in the world.” It’s the high level of skill and experience at the plant that has several employees questioning the closure announcement.“It’s not that it (the plant) isn’t profitable, it is,” said the unnamed employee.
His theory is that since Lavington is known for its high quality product, customers won’t accept anything else. Therefore, O-I’s other plants are having a hard time selling their product, he suggests. “Their customers won’t take it because they know Lavington exists.” So he claims, O-I has to close Lavington to make its other plants more profitable. He says the company has actually been saving money with Lavington’s experienced employees, who are even able to fix their own machines instead of contracting out. “That’s the kind of stuff that goes on here and not at any other plants.” But he understands that any loss could also be largely due to sizeable expenses for the Canadian side of the company to truck product over the border. In turn, there are 300 employees who are losing their jobs and will have to try and fit their skills into a whole new market, although O-I has stated that it will assist employees seeking new jobs.
In terms of union help, the employee says Local 213 has been a disappointment. “I don’t expect any help from our union.” Then there are the estimated 30 to 40 transport trucks loading up and hauling product from the plant on a daily basis. The plant closure will be a huge loss of work for those transportation companies and drivers, says the employee. But the even broader impact is on the community. “There’s $20 million in wages alone that are spent in the valley,” he said. Plus there is the impact on local companies that will be losing the glass plant’s business. Precision Electric Motor and Pump Service supplies, repairs and maintains motors for the glass plant and is sad to lose the business. “They’ve been a good customer,” said owner Chris Marchetti. “I’ve been dealing with them in motors for the last 15 to 20 years and there’s a lot of memories in that plant.” While Precision won’t be devastated by the loss, it will have to seek business elsewhere. “That’s one of the reasons why we go up to the Cariboo and elsewhere in the province because there’s not a lot of big business here,” said Marchetti. Losing yet another big company in the area hurts all around, he said. “To lose a big operation like that affects everyone.” At B.C. Bearing’s Vernon location, the feeling is mutual.“Losing one is one too many,” said Brent Troidle, technical sales manager. Estimating that the glass plant makes up about 10 per cent of the local B.C. Bearing’s business, Troidle says the even bigger loss is in the established relationship. “They’re one of our better customers for sure,” said Troidle. “It’s certainly disappointing. It’s certainly a portion of business that we wish not to see go.”
The likelihood that the plant, which O-I plans to sell, will ever become another glass plant or any other big business, is minimal, says the anonymous employee. “Once you shut that plant down and close the furnaces, they’re dead,” he said. “They’re going to make sure that once they shut this plant down, it will never be opened again, not without $60 or $70 million.” He estimates that the necessary rebuild cost of one furnace alone is $34 million. Therefore, the anonymous employee says with the unlikelihood of the glass industry surviving, coupled with the individual effects, the closure is going to greatly impact Greater Vernon.
O-I could not be reached for comment.
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