Team 1 Plastics VP Gary Grigowski quoted in Plastics News pandemic labor shortage story

A feature story in the October 6, 2020 issue of Plastics News – a Crain sister publication out of Detroit that covers the business of the global plastics industry – used unemployment data from Calhoun County, Michigan, and an interview with Gary Grigowski, vice president and co-owner of Team 1 Plastics which is located there, to illustrate the headline issue.

The article, entitled “Manufacturers puzzle over labor shortage amid high unemployment,” noted that Calhoun County’s unemployment rate stood at 10.9 percent in July – which, out of the state’s 83 counties, was the 72nd worse. Despite that, they noted, Team 1 Plastics, the 64-employee company located in Albion, MI, had been unable to fill four open positions at their plastic automotive components manufacturing facility there.

“We’ve had people do all the training, and then on the very first day, they ghost us,” Grigowski told their Crain’s Business Detroit reporter Dustin Walsh. “A few times new hires just didn’t show up after a few days, and we’ve had people who work for a few hours, then don’t come back after lunch.”

The story went on to describe how other Tier 2 automotive suppliers were also facing the puzzling labor force shortage despite auto dealer lots being depleted of vehicles during the early months of the COVID-19 shutdown, and 400,000 workers in the stated remaining unemployed.

“Executives blame changing attitudes toward work following generous state and federal unemployment payments, as well as an oddly competitive jobs market,” it read. “Some have moved on to different work, others have pre-existing health conditions and are avoiding potential coronavirus exposure. And some have children or family-care issues that prevent them from working.”

Grigowski related to the publication that those seemingly obvious factors weren’t aligning with what Team 1’s human resources department was learning from the walk-offs and the no-shows.

“We’ve been analyzing the issue internally, and if it’s because they get a job closer to home or pays more, we don’t begrudge anyone for that,” her said. The impression we have is that most of the people who have left were not going to another job. They just were not coming to work because they didn’t want to work.”

Currently, Grigowski notes, the auto industry it still playing catch-up from the shutdowns in March, April, and early May. “And we at Team 1 have positions to fill. We are hiring!”

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