ERIC ANDERSON -- timesunion.com -- September 6, 2006
SCHENECTADY -- Officials at Railex will hold a job fair Friday they seek to fill 150 jobs at their new produce distribution center in Rotterdam Industrial Park.
The event, staged in conjunction with the local Workforce Investment Board, will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Schenectady County One Stop center at 433 State St.
It's the second of at least three recruitment events. An earlier one drew 150 applicants, said Railex spokesman Paul Esposito, and a third one will be held later this month in Amsterdam.
Esposito declined to say how much the positions will pay, but did say that many of them are warehouse jobs. Positions include packers and stackers, forklift operators, office clerks, machine operators and packing supervisors.
Railex will operate 55-car refrigerated express trains from its new warehouse in Wallula, Wash., to the Rotterdam distribution center, making the 3,000-mile trip in about five days. The service will cut transportation costs, according to supermarket and company officials, and that should reduce retail prices as well, they say.
Ampco Distribution Services LLC of Riverhead, Suffolk County, is leading the produce initiative, while Union Pacific Railroad and CSX Transportation will jointly operate the trains. One train a week will operate in each direction; Esposito said a second round-trip could be added sometime before the second quarter of 2007.
With current shipping, "it costs more to ship a box of lettuce than the lettuce itself costs," said Neil Golub, president and chief executive officer of Golub Corp., the company that operates Price Chopper supermarkets. Golub made his comments last fall at a news conference announcing the rail plan.
Construction on the Rotterdam distribution center, which cost $18 million, is nearly completed. New York state paid for $2.735 million in track improvements that also should benefit other tenants in the industrial park, officials have said.
The Railex center in Washington state employs 120 people and has already begun operating, Esposito said Tuesday afternoon. Right now, it's sending out individual rail cars full of produce.
The first through-train for Rotterdam will run in early October, Esposito said. Eventually, as many as 300 people may work at the distribution center.
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