TOWN OF TONAWANDA — Erica Michael, of Blasdell, said 75% of her usual weekly paycheck has disappeared after Sumitomo Rubber announced it was closing its Town of Tonawanda plant.
Michael owns her own trucking company, Green Gloves Buffalo LLC, and hauled tires from Sumitomo six days a week for the past six months.
Sumitomo said the closure comes after an extended examination of the facility's viability. The evaluation found mounting material and logistics costs, dated infrastructure, intermittent financial performance and changing market conditions. You can watch our previous report below and read more here.
"Basically a promise load every day that I knew I could make a check for my family," explained Michael to me.
Sumitomo was her biggest client.
"My wife and I were trying to start a family, and you don’t think something you’re doing every day that you worked hard to make happen is just going to disappear overnight," said Michael.
Michael empathizes with the more than 1,500 Sumitomo employees who were recently laid off. She said she knew many on a first-name basis.
Some of those 1,500+ employees came together earlier this week to voice their anger and outrage over the abrupt closure. You can watch our previous report below and read more here.
"It was really like a family in there," said Michael. "Everyone loved their job so much, and they made my life easy too, which made it easy to go to six days a week."
Michael has enjoyed being a truck driver for the past eight years, hauling tires or food products throughout New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Canada. However, she said it has become harder to find industrial jobs.
"I was making money, hand over fist, and now I've watched right before my very eyes that its dwindled," said Michael.
With the holidays around the corner, Michael said she will have to make personal budget cuts, but is determined to find more work.
"It's unfortunate, but you have to work through it," said Michael.
On Wednesday afternoon Joshua Hall, the president of United Steelworkers of American Local 135 told me that the union proposed a plan to Sumitomo leaders to keep the plant open. Hall said the company agreed to review it. The location of the meeting, and who was involved is being kept private.
