I don’t post cartoons about local (the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metro region) topics too often because so many issues on the national and world stage have been dominating the public discourse. There’s that and my intention to relate to a broader audience. But for now, the imminent closure of the Cascades plant in Niagara Falls, NY, is my subject.
Water, water everywhere
Cascades is a Canadian company headquartered in Quebec. I’m guessing that the company name is related to the province’s prominent waterfalls.
The top three:
Montmorency Falls (272 ft. drop)
Canyon Sainte-Anne Falls (243 ft. drop)
Jean-Larose Falls (134 ft. drop)
Montmorency Falls and Canyon Sainte-Anne Falls both boast that they are significantly taller than Niagara, which is 167 to 184 ft., depending on location.
So maybe that’s part of the shutdown equation. Height-challenged Niagara Falls didn’t measure up to Quebec’s taller lineup. Of course, that comment was placed here in jest, but I’m always up for a good conspiracy theory.
What do they make?
Wavy cardboard, that’s what. The corrugated layer you see in cardboard packaging may have come from a Cascades facility. There are mighty big players in the cardboard container business. I read that Cascades is the sixth largest in North America. Think about the countless Amazon boxes that permeate our lives!
Cascades is recognized for incorporating recycled cardboard into its manufacturing process. I don’t know if that is typical of the major players in this industry, but it is a message embedded in the company’s greenthink culture.
All politics is local and …
All economics is local, too. Whether you are part of a massive layoff that garners headlines across the country or just a single old apple that was plucked from the corporate tree, the impact on you and your family is the same. Often, the small-time “a few here and a few there” job cuts are worse because there is no severance or buyout package to send you on your merry way. When there were newspapers, they didn’t even show up there. Maybe delivering newspapers became your next job, because it has been a long time since I saw any young boy or girl working their way down the street, product in hand. I miss that bit of Americana, now draped in cobwebs.
Either way, you are up the famous creek, maybe not only paddleless but without a flotation device. Perhaps in a future post, I’ll try to put a funny spin on the layoffs I’ve endured. It’ll be a test of the old formula: comedy = tragedy + time.
It could be worse
At least Cascades Niagara Falls wasn’t a Soylent Green plant, where recycling people was taken quite literally.