BROWNSVILLE, Texas – A labor shortage up north has led to 100 skilled workers from the Rio Grande Valley being sent to help out advanced manufacturing facilities in Michigan and Ohio.
CK Technologies, a division of Cascade Engineering, produces plastic injection parts for the commercial truck and bus industry. It has factories in Brownsville, Texas, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Montpelier, Ohio.
“We are recovering from the pandemic big time. Sales are up. But, we are short of people, not just in Brownsville but everywhere else,” said Griselda Muñoz, senior human resources manager for CK Technologies.
“One of our two locations up north was experiencing severe employee shortages. So, we took 50 people to Montpelier, Ohio, and 50 people to Grand Rapids, Michigan. The positions are in advance manufacturing operations, anything from production operators to fork lift drivers.”
Muñoz said the good thing is, CK Technologies has “very good people” to take up north. “The talent is down here. The culture of hard work is down here.”
Muñoz said the work away from home is three months in length.
“It has been a very successful project. So much so that we are looking to do again at the end of the summer. We are actually talking about doing it again once this three-month project is over, at the end of August.”
Muñoz said the workers have the option to stay at the two northern facilities permanently, to stay temporarily, or to come back and work in the Brownsville facility. “They have a lot of benefits and a sign-on bonus. These are well-paid jobs,” she explained.
Muñoz thanked Select Staff for their help in finding quality workers for the Brownsville plant.
“Our main goal is to become the employer of choice in advance manufacturing and to our impact our communities in a positive way. We know that this group of 100 people that are now working up north, we have impacted their lives forever,” Muñoz said.
Editor’s Note: The main image accompanying the above news story shows Griselda Muñoz of CK Technologies, pictured center, with Maribel Baca and Minerva Guerra of Select Staff.
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