Ellenville By 9:15 a.m., it was all over. A hundred years of history, at least 260 jobs.
They came streaming out the front door of Imperial Schrade Corp. Some were sobbing. Others embraced. Some walked in circles with their hands on their ears as if they'd been stunned. They were talking into cell phones, spreading the bad news.
They all clutched what amounted to their walking papers, a one-page letter from Schrade President Walter A. Gardiner that began "We regret to advise you ."
With those words, at least 260 people, many of whom had worked at the knife manufacturing plant for 10, 20 and even 30 years, were shown the door yesterday by a once-proud, family-friendly company whose name was almost synonymous with Ellenville.
None of the suddenly jobless workers said they were surprised. After all, the company laid off more than 100 workers without so much as a warning just before Christmas last year.
But lately, there had been signs of a recovery. About 40 people who had been laid off in December were rehired in April. As recently as a few days ago, new hires were coming in the door.
But it all came to nothing. Gardiner's letter said it all:
"Your last day of employment will commence on July 30, 2004."
Gardiner blamed unspecified "difficulties" with the company's suppliers and financial institutions, as well as sluggish sales in the wake of Sept. 11. A company spokeswoman refused to answer specific questions following the announcement, including exactly how many workers were fired.
Whatever reasons the company gave, the workers blamed their bosses for the hurt they felt and the panic that was already spreading.
The kids. The rent. Back-to-school clothes. Health coverage.
Standing in the front doorway of Schrade yesterday morning was like being the first visitor at a wake.
THE LIGHTS were being shut off in one of the plant's many machine shops by 9:30 a.m. A few time cards remained in slots along the wall next to the time clock.
In the main hall leading to the employee exit, workers carried boxes and yellow ShopRite bags stuffed with personal items: family pictures, posters, sweaters and sweatshirts.
Along the wall hung the United Way fund-raising barometer. Plant employees were $500 shy of their goal of $5,000.
Outside at a shaded picnic bench, as the newly jobless workers walked to their cars and trucks, two women sat smoking and crying.
"It will be OK, Agnie," said Teresa Kalinowska, 42.
Both Kalinowska and Agnieszka Nadrowska, 36, are immigrants from Poland. Both had worked at Schrade's shipping department since their arrival in America: Nadrowska for six years, Kalinowska for five.
Both have children. Neither one knows what they're going to do.
"I'm always honest with my children," said Nadrowska, a widow who came from Staszow, Poland, with her two kids, a daughter, now 15, and a 16-year-old son. "I guess I'll tell them today I have no job."
After four years of scrimping and saving and establishing credit, Nadrowska finally bought a fixer-upper house in Ellenville. In the last two years, she's replaced the plumbing, the furnace and the roof, and painted the walls.
"The yard is small, but my kids play [in] it," she said as she took a heavy pull off her cigarette.
She started to cry again.
"My daughter, her birthday is in August," she said. "Happy birthday, yes?"
Supervisor Frank Ficsor found himself in tears when he said goodbye to the men and women in his department.
Ficsor is 48 years old. He went to work for Schrade on his 18th birthday.
"It's like a death in the family," he said yesterday.
He, like every other worker, will receive no buyout, no severance pay. His health insurance coverage ends today.
He has two kids in college.
VILLAGE MANAGER Elliot Auerbach thought more cooperation between Schrade and the village could have helped.
"I'm angry. So many people have been totally blindsided. There's no excuse for it," he said yesterday.
Auerbach said he'd met with Gardiner and other officials after the December layoffs. He told them they'd shown a lack of compassion and sensitivity.
"Obviously, they didn't listen."
Cheap foreign labor, especially in China, has long been blamed for the company's problems. But it's not that simple, according to a state expert.
The closing may have a big impact locally, but it's part of a long-standing national trend, according to Nallan Suresh, professor of management science at the State University of Buffalo.
Fixed Chinese exchange rates that make materials cheaper there are at the root of Schrade's problem, according to Suresh.
"Material costs are as much as 75 percent lower in China, so it's not just cheap labor," he said.
Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Saugerties, also blamed Chinese competition on Schrade's closing.
Hinchey said he was shocked by the closing, especially since he believed the company was on the verge of getting a "very significant" military contract.
Since 1990, according to the state Labor Department, more than 6,300 manufacturing jobs have disappeared in the Upper Delaware and Hudson Valley region, which includes Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties in New York and Pike County in Pennsylvania.
Ulster has lost 1,100 jobs; Pike and Orange have lost 5,200; and Sullivan, while losing a few hundred jobs from 2000 to 2001, has remained relatively steady since 1990, according to Johnnie Nelson, a labor market analyst with the department.
Michael Cruz sat on a picnic bench outside the front door and looked into the distance. He's 60 years old, two years from retirement.
"Everything's changed," he said. "What are you going to do?"
They came streaming out the front door of Imperial Schrade Corp. Some were sobbing. Others embraced. Some walked in circles with their hands on their ears as if they'd been stunned. They were talking into cell phones, spreading the bad news.
They all clutched what amounted to their walking papers, a one-page letter from Schrade President Walter A. Gardiner that began "We regret to advise you ."
With those words, at least 260 people, many of whom had worked at the knife manufacturing plant for 10, 20 and even 30 years, were shown the door yesterday by a once-proud, family-friendly company whose name was almost synonymous with Ellenville.
None of the suddenly jobless workers said they were surprised. After all, the company laid off more than 100 workers without so much as a warning just before Christmas last year.
But lately, there had been signs of a recovery. About 40 people who had been laid off in December were rehired in April. As recently as a few days ago, new hires were coming in the door.
But it all came to nothing. Gardiner's letter said it all:
"Your last day of employment will commence on July 30, 2004."
Gardiner blamed unspecified "difficulties" with the company's suppliers and financial institutions, as well as sluggish sales in the wake of Sept. 11. A company spokeswoman refused to answer specific questions following the announcement, including exactly how many workers were fired.
Whatever reasons the company gave, the workers blamed their bosses for the hurt they felt and the panic that was already spreading.
The kids. The rent. Back-to-school clothes. Health coverage.
Standing in the front doorway of Schrade yesterday morning was like being the first visitor at a wake.
THE LIGHTS were being shut off in one of the plant's many machine shops by 9:30 a.m. A few time cards remained in slots along the wall next to the time clock.
In the main hall leading to the employee exit, workers carried boxes and yellow ShopRite bags stuffed with personal items: family pictures, posters, sweaters and sweatshirts.
Along the wall hung the United Way fund-raising barometer. Plant employees were $500 shy of their goal of $5,000.
Outside at a shaded picnic bench, as the newly jobless workers walked to their cars and trucks, two women sat smoking and crying.
"It will be OK, Agnie," said Teresa Kalinowska, 42.
Both Kalinowska and Agnieszka Nadrowska, 36, are immigrants from Poland. Both had worked at Schrade's shipping department since their arrival in America: Nadrowska for six years, Kalinowska for five.
Both have children. Neither one knows what they're going to do.
"I'm always honest with my children," said Nadrowska, a widow who came from Staszow, Poland, with her two kids, a daughter, now 15, and a 16-year-old son. "I guess I'll tell them today I have no job."
After four years of scrimping and saving and establishing credit, Nadrowska finally bought a fixer-upper house in Ellenville. In the last two years, she's replaced the plumbing, the furnace and the roof, and painted the walls.
"The yard is small, but my kids play [in] it," she said as she took a heavy pull off her cigarette.
She started to cry again.
"My daughter, her birthday is in August," she said. "Happy birthday, yes?"
Supervisor Frank Ficsor found himself in tears when he said goodbye to the men and women in his department.
Ficsor is 48 years old. He went to work for Schrade on his 18th birthday.
"It's like a death in the family," he said yesterday.
He, like every other worker, will receive no buyout, no severance pay. His health insurance coverage ends today.
He has two kids in college.
VILLAGE MANAGER Elliot Auerbach thought more cooperation between Schrade and the village could have helped.
"I'm angry. So many people have been totally blindsided. There's no excuse for it," he said yesterday.
Auerbach said he'd met with Gardiner and other officials after the December layoffs. He told them they'd shown a lack of compassion and sensitivity.
"Obviously, they didn't listen."
Cheap foreign labor, especially in China, has long been blamed for the company's problems. But it's not that simple, according to a state expert.
The closing may have a big impact locally, but it's part of a long-standing national trend, according to Nallan Suresh, professor of management science at the State University of Buffalo.
Fixed Chinese exchange rates that make materials cheaper there are at the root of Schrade's problem, according to Suresh.
"Material costs are as much as 75 percent lower in China, so it's not just cheap labor," he said.
Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Saugerties, also blamed Chinese competition on Schrade's closing.
Hinchey said he was shocked by the closing, especially since he believed the company was on the verge of getting a "very significant" military contract.
Since 1990, according to the state Labor Department, more than 6,300 manufacturing jobs have disappeared in the Upper Delaware and Hudson Valley region, which includes Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties in New York and Pike County in Pennsylvania.
Ulster has lost 1,100 jobs; Pike and Orange have lost 5,200; and Sullivan, while losing a few hundred jobs from 2000 to 2001, has remained relatively steady since 1990, according to Johnnie Nelson, a labor market analyst with the department.
Michael Cruz sat on a picnic bench outside the front door and looked into the distance. He's 60 years old, two years from retirement.
"Everything's changed," he said. "What are you going to do?"
