For companies, it really isn't quality of life.
When Polyclad first entered the IP, it was so that we could increase production. The Tannery St facility was already operating 24/7, so a new facility had to be built.
After that, the market matured. We reached the point that producing more was not going to work as the market demand was reached... we were attempting to take market share from other customers, and did so. But we did so because the corporate management demanded more than the local management could provide... the answer were to maintain production, but reduce costs.
Most management focuses on labor costs... but we decided to focus on management labor costs, and secondary expenditures.
We grabbed ideas from everyone and reduce or hazardous and material waste to the roughly 10 percent of what it had been less than a year before. We noted that workers were taking lots of sick days (probably stress) and changed the format to pay workers for sick days they did not use, and require a doctor's note for every incident more than 40 hrs per year.
But OSHA noted that ''noise'' was playing a large role at that time. So we went to earplugs and testing - that is how the new occupational wing at Franklin Hospital came into being... we made the investment. After that, serious efforts went into monitoring worker health from on-site physicals that included eye testing, to testing at random all employees for hearing degradation.
But as costs were adding up... it made sense to expend engineering hours to reduce noise pollution (they also included light due to concerns around that).
The choice to leave Franklin (even though Polyclad was the largest tax payer at that time) was due to high energy costs - the State didn't really care to focus on that problem - and high transportation costs - the State decided that the rail line was more important for recreational purposes than as a mass freight line.
So while Franklin may not be concerned - they tend not to learn from past examples - the company is most likely very concerned on the cost factor.
Aberg may be able to get you a meeting with at least the plant manager. A good manager will see it as an opportunity to cut secondary costs rather than some else's problem.
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