Slant/Fin news

DanHolohan

https://www.newsday.com/business/slant-fin-layoffs-heating-boiler-mestek-acquisition-union-1.50480655

ScottSecor

Tried to open link, claims I must be a subscriber. I gather from the words in the link that Slant Fin is laying off employees?

DanHolohan

Sorry, Scott. Here 'tis:

Slant/Fin Corp. plans to lay off 68 workers after selling its baseboard heating unit to a Massachusetts company, according to a government filing.

The Greenvale company will continue making a line of boilers and retain 175 to 200 workers, said chief financial officer Charles Famoso.

The layoffs of the workers, represented by Local 485, International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America, are expected to take place on March 31.

A union official did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Slant/Fin sold its baseboard heating manufacturing business to Mestek Inc., based in Westfield, Massachusetts, in April.

Financial terms of that deal were not disclosed.

Famoso said that Mestek has not offered the Slant/Fin workers facing layoffs an option to transfer to Massachusetts.

DanHolohan

And my memories of Mel Dubin:

https://heatinghelp.com/dead-men-tales/remembering-mel-dubin/

ScottSecor

Dan, thanks for sharing. Sad to read this, especially when it appears that anything related to building materials is in such high demand. Hopefully, the recently unemployed Slant Fin workers can get jobs in the near future.

Never met Mel Dubin, but almost feel like I have thanks to your writings.

DanHolohan

Thanks, Scott. I wish them all well. 

Jamie Hall

From our HVAC point of view, it might be helpful to remember that Mestek is actually a very large player in the overall market in both conventional heating and in heat pumps. I think I'm correct in saying that the oldest component of the firm is H. B. Smith. They have very good facilities in Westfield, MA. Take a look at the website.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Mestek is a big player they own a lot of brands. Unfortunately H B Smith a once proud company is down to almost nothing as they only offer 2 boilers now. Sad

When I started in 73 they had the cast iron market locked up pretty tight especially in the north east. Almost every school and public buildings had Smith boilers. Their sales/engineering staff was very aggressive with the engineering community. Around here it was as if no other cast iron boiler existed.

It would be nice if Mestek reached out to the Slant Fin employees

DanHolohan

EBEBRATT-Ed said:

It would be nice if Mestek reached out to the Slant Fin employees

I wish they had made that offer. The article says they didn't. It's always sad to see this, especially on Long Island where the cost of living is so high.

TAG

Sad to see ... I'm still involved with family business in NYC. What left of it ... changing tastes and offshore costs.

How much baseboard is installed today? Have never used it in any of my projects .... I reued cast baseboard in a project and use Embassy in a bathroom 20+ years ago.