Vertex CEO talks filling, training 1,300 new positions

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Wilmington’s newest manufacturer is just weeks away from hiring and training for more than 1,300 jobs. The CEO of Vertex Rail, Donald Croteau, stopped in Wilmington this week to visit the facility and meet with new clients.

Croteau says they are working with the Hometown Hires organization to give all Wilmington locals a chance to get a job.

“We were looking at how to expand the safety net to bring in as many applicants as we could, and we knew that using the traditional method of no bad background, no disadvantages issues wasn’t going to work for us, because we needed a lot of people,” Croteau said.

The announcement from Vertex Rail came last November. Croteau says now they’re just weeks away from hiring and training 1,342 people.

“The hiring phase is going to begin to start a bit more aggressive fashion in late January early February,” Croteau said.

Wanda Forsythe is one of many hoping to be picked for a more permanent job. She says she’s spent a majority of her life in temp jobs.

“They could last a week, two weeks, a month, two months and you never know. You could be there two days and they say, We don’t need you no more,'” Forsythe said.

Croteau says with Hometown Hires – a non-profit that gives Wilmington’s generational poverty a chance to work – it’s the first time he’s ever done something like this.

“Our opportunity here is so big, with so many job openings, that we think we can give everyone a chance and we should give everyone a chance,” Croteau said.

For Croteau, it’s a chance to attack poverty. And for Wilmington locals, it’s a chance for stability.

“To have a really permanent job, that would be great,” Forsythe said.

Hometown Hires is an initiative started by private, public and nonprofit organizations at United Way of the Cape Fear that matches local individuals with local employers. For more information go to their website http://hometownhires.com.