process technician

mold setter

maintenance person

tool maker

forklift operator

The Plastek Group

This is a family owned company so things will be run differently than the typical corporate company and depending on what you like this may be a good or bad thing. 

Things are much more relaxed and laid back, people are noticeably more personal and friendly or aggressive, professionalism is not a requirement. Like I said just keep in mind that this is not a corporate structure with the same rules and hierarchy, you will watch managers being disciplined in front of you for instance something you will never see at other companies. 

Problems are solved with a 'get it done' attitude, which typically means no matter what it's going to get fixed there will always be a way to fix things even if it's not the most correct way. Again...this is just how smaller companies operate.

I worked as an Mechatronics (Automation) Engineer there for about 4 years I still miss the company and think it's a great place to work. It can be stressful somedays and relaxed others but overall you will get great experience and meet some great and not so great people. You'll notice clear divides in groups of employees and the whole work culture reminds me of The Office. 

Plasteks as a company depending on your role in it will do a lot for you, ie sending you to whatever training you need, being flexible with family and personal emergencies, and they even let their employees take out interest free loans on tools for work with their future paycheck.

They are also particularly stingy about a lot of things too, health insurance is not good, you have to buy your own tools (you may get some here and there but this is rare), personal days are low.

The biggest issue is pay, the pay is subpar compared to other companies and you can definitely work your way up to a more normal payrate for your role if you sit there and argue about it enough, I don't know if it's worth it though. The company gets so stingy with employee pay but has no problem blowing money on contractors and unnecessary machines/renovations that it becomes insulting to the employees who work extremely hard yet feel they're being underpaid. And this wasn't an issue with just me since I spoke to many of the people who would be vital to the company's operation and felt similarly to me. 

However all that being said, this is one of the best jobs to start training you for real life job experience, Plasteks does not shy away from trying to do everything and anything themselves in the most down and dirty way. This was starting to change but before they would always avoid use of contractor and integration solutions so a lot of times engineers would have to help develop systems from the ground up that already had paid solutions. It saved money for Plasteks but more importantly it gave the engineers a great learning experience. 

You will also be faced with a lot of adversity and challenges you would not expect from just being in college. You get to see the unprofessional side of how jobs can be, if you are an engineer I think you will learn in this company more than any other company because of how much free reign you have over the equipment (which is a good thing), and if you stick with it and argue enough for a decent pay I think this is actually a great company overall to work for. 

Some of the best people I've ever met work in this company and they are all great teachers and role models. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
I would not recommend Plastek to anyone. Sorry for the bad review, I’m normally a positive person. Plastek is one of the most unfair places I’ve ever worked. They don’t give much of training and expect top quality work. I gave this place almost 2 years and they crapped on me 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I had great attendance but for those who had to be out, or late, the point system is a joke. If you get points, they never roll off. You have to work them off by perfect attendance for an entire month. That means not even excused absences. Like idle you have a dr. Appointment, it’s excused. You don’t get a point. But they don’t count that as perfect attendance either. For the people that work the 12 hour shift, this shouldn’t be a problem. But for those that were 8 hour, Monday through Friday people, it’s nearly impossible to get a full month without having a appointment of some kind. You also couldn’t be a minute late or work a half day on days with an excused absence. This was only one of their one sided deals. They also go through management at a very high rate. It’s the upper management that makes this such an undesirable place. Not friendly and so unhelpful. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Management is terrible 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Long and stressful.

Pay is uncompetitive for erie, $15 to start. Management doesnt care about its employees, they just kiss up to higher ups in the company. Weekend are optional but youll most likely end up working because of the low salary. Upper management doesn't understand how the machines operate along with the operators. High stress environment. Terrible vacation time 5 days after a year and one day of sick time. Insurance is bottom of the barrel, high premiums for personal doctor and chiropractic service "you'll need it", dental covers fillings and that's it, 25 cents a filling. Vision covers 25% of new frames that's it. If you go to the ER you'll pay the full bill unless your admitted, then your insurance will foot the bill. Prescription coverage is non existent.  Don't get caught taking over the counter drugs while at work. you'll get written up even if it's Tylenol. no phones are allowed on you while on the production floor, if you need to make a call you have to either step outside the building 9/10 you'll be told no, or you can use the company phones in the managers office. The people who work on the floor are great people, just watch your back for management they will get you fired in a heartbeat.

Compared to other area factories, Plastek:
-Pays a little better then average, OT is A+ when available 
-Excellent training, good 1st factory job
-Advancement opportunities that can be a very good deal for you and Plastek both
-Is huge. Lots of variety of tasks.Less boring than small shops

The pay is good for Erie but still objectively low. They are good about raises in that they don’t skip them, but don’t expect significant jumps in pay even when moving from production to management (or maintenance to engineering etc). 

It gets worse the ‘higher up’ you go.  There are people with the title Engineer that lack the industry standard requirements, keeping the salaries artificially low. Erie has the worst Brain Drain in Pennsylvania, and Plastek could help keep real Engineers here after graduation by hiring them and paying them competitively. 

Shift supervisors’ salaries might look good on paper, but you can make the same amount by working 1-2 weekends a month for OT. 

Also, it’s decades overdue for offer a better shift differential, <$1 extra is basically nothing.  


There are no sick days and you have to work a full year before getting 40hrs of vacation. You get 1 pto day every start of the year. The insurance is useless. You get 1 lousy bonus at the end of the year. HR didn't even explain much during orientation, I had to ask my supervisor to know all of this. Typical day of work would be us having 3-4 machines that we have to watch and check parts for defects and there are a lot of them. Bad parts means bad bonus, but when we bring it up to management all we get are excuses. Nothing gets fixed, broken conveyors, boxes, even the tape guns are embarrassing. I worked at a bunch of factories here in erie and this is bad. The only reason I lasted so long was cuase the operators were tight and the supervisor was great. We operators had each others backs, no drama and the supervisor treated us like we mattered. After I left a lot of the others left as well and I heard they fired the forman and supervisor. Ending, if you're not a friend of someone in management, this is not your place.

Start off with a meeting, then go to the machine/machines I am assigned to ensure they are running smooth. I attend to maintenance calls and repair machines as needed. I have learned the basics and some advance aspects of how the machines operate.Managers don't enforce team work, and don't show appreciation towards their employees. Co workers are all about themselves. There is no team work here. This company has very poor morale, and therefore it makes work days miserable. I dread to go to work. Hardest part of my job is to deal with the negative remarks on how poor we are running, but we have the highest producing numbers on the shift. The most enjoyable part of the job is hands on learning experiences

When I started with this company in July 2011 I thought I had found where I would work forever. I started as a floor person on the molding floor and with in a month had been asked to learn the production office work. After 7 monthes of being put here and there I learned that I had lost my position to another employee with absolutely no experience or seniority due to a half of point in attendance. This company has no values nor due they care for their employees. In 8 monthes they have hired and fired over 300 employees and that is not including the temporary staffing employees. This company is the most unorganized unstable company that I have ever worked for. If looking for a stable, organized, room to grow company... THIS BUSINESS IS NOT FOR YOU.

At first I loved my job but soon after it turned into a big horrible mess, I started to find out about alot of things that were not making any since what so ever to me, for instance I learned that there was several people that had been there for 15 to 20 years that was just barely making over $10.00 an hour,the way some of the supervisors are allowed to talk to and treat their employees is disrespectful and down right distasteful,and the worst of all ,going back to my first statement there is no room for advancement and not to mention the pay is horrible as are the benefits,you never know wats going on one day it's one way the next it's another.

I work for this company for 4 year! I loved the job in the beginning but as time went by the company started going down hill. The management don't treat you with respect at all. They will walk right by you and act as if they don't see you, they won't speak or even wave to acknowledge you. They act as if the money they are paying you comes directly out of their pockets. The only time they do acknowledge you is when the owners of the company come in. Most is the management want you to do a job that they are not even capable of doing themselves. There is no order or consistency in this place at all.

Managed and supervised maintenance staff integrated by three engineering technicians  for the preventive or corrective maintenance following the manufacture schedules. Supervised the work of suppliers or technical representatives. Responsible for scheduling and the accomplish preventives and corrective maintenance of the supportive equipment of the main operation of injection. Guarantee that safety training was provided to staff and contractors and supervised that proper safety practices were followed.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Process technician 4 salaries reported	$26.00 per hour
Mold setter 4 salaries reported	$17.50 per hour
Maintenance person 4 salaries reported	$19.75 per hour
Tool maker 1 salary reported	$26.00 per hour
Forklift operator 2 salaries reported	$21.75 per hour

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