Many years ago as this is written, streamers were in the air and horns were blaring Saturday before Labor Day in Ashland PA.. along with that, the smell of food and beer… early fall evenings collided with a long tradition of welcoming home the Ashland Boys..
That ended..
Labor day is quiet.
Not even fire trucks anymore..
And this year, Ashland was greeted with one more hit: For more than 50 years, Tri-State Envelope is closing down, announced just days before Labor Day 2024..
Factory closings are not new. Nothing surprising. A bridge to the 21st century was paved with manufacturing becoming nothing but history in the United States.
Was it NAFTA? GAAT? Just regular old ‘progress’?
The Keystone Research Center reported in 2003..
Think tanks changed their tune in 2015
By 2019 it was agreed the rust belt was dead.
But Tri-State is not going overseas. It is moving to the land of corn: Iowa. “The decision is aimed at lowering costs, improving efficiency, and streamlining operations. Employees were notified on August 28th, 2024, that the facility would complete the transition on October 27th, 2024, or very soon thereafter,” the company said in a released statement.
The company will be officially housed in Wapello, Iowa- with a population of 2083 at the time of the 2020 census. For comparison, Ashland PA had 2,471 reported as residents in 2020.
If you wanted to get a glimpse at Tri-State’s new home, here is a the latest image of Wapello’s downtown–despite those old cars in the photo:
Just to show how quickly business can change, this story is from 2021: Moore Shores Up Its Supply Chain Acquiring Tri-State Envelope … Tri-State was ‘excited’ then: “Everyone at Tri-State Envelope is very excited about our future as part of Moore,” said Joe O’Donnell, president of Tri-State Envelope.
As recently as 2020 the manufacturer employed about 300 people between its Ashland factory and Ringtown warehouse, but had gradually been cutting workers since its purchase by the Moore Corporation.
They bragged at that time of the acquisition that they specialized in the manufacturing of high color direct mail envelopes with high-speed equipment capable of running speeds of up to 1,500 envelopes per minute.
And if you are going to argue that Tri-State’s move is based on lesser envelopes being used lately, have you checked your mail box lately? Today, well over 185 billion envelopes are produced each year with more than 85 percent being delivered by the Postal Service…
There have been many news articles of note through history..
A Chamber of Commerce gala featured a ribbon cutting on May 4, 1967. Dignitaries were on hand. The future was bright in Ashland:
In May 1967, Governor Shafer and a Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry inspector were there for a photo op:
Things couldn’t be better in 1968 when Tri-State was busy making 3 million envelopes DAILY in Ashland.
Jobs kept getting added through the years.
Things were looking great on January 31, 1975.. The POTTSVILLE REPUBLICAN was excited about a new glue machine:
In 1998, one of many labor issues through the years occurred when police were called to keep the peace during tense labor negotiations in July of that year:
By 2008, a mass layoff of 50 caused concern–but it was called temporary and officials at that time remained optimistic:
It was not unheard of to have your daily fish wrapper come with ads from Tri-State wishing you a happy holiday season.
Some say it all changed when Moore purchased..
By the cold winds of November 2024, it will come to an end. The lights will go dark, and yet another large building will rot in Schuylkill County.
Until then, until that moment when employees will be told goodbye for good, stay off the grass. As though that grass matters, and as though that grass will be cut in 2025.
