production operator

instrument technician

maintenance technician

maintenance manager

production supervisor

Welchs

Welch’s is a union shop which means they pay well. Beyond that, though, there is not much that appeals to the average worker. 

The schedule can change hourly and if you do not check it minutes before you leave, you will be subject to their point system which management is far too happy to implement. If you do not want to work on a weekend, you would simply not “sign,” but that does not mean you will actually get the weekend off. Or if it’s during the week, you can try to use a vacation day, but if it’s in a time when people actually want to go on vacation, (i.e. summer) good luck! I saw all three shifts in a week more times than I can count.  

A typical day at work consisted of a 12 minute pass off from the utility and group leads (if they were not busy doing the supervisors’ work) to go over the plan of what was expected for the shift. This was done on "info sheets" which were, more often than not, incorrect. Within the past few weeks they have terminated the pass off to discourage communication. So now you can take your position at your station where you will be stuck for the remainder of your eight hours, with the exception of two 20 minute breaks. You will be trained at this position for as little or as long as management sees fit, which is usually nowhere near long enough to see all the problems that could arise on an average day. And if a problem does arise, and you mishandle it, their point system will happily be used against you. I was originally Trained as a Utility which no one told me was one of the most important jobs under the most scrutiny. I was trained for 32 days before they rushed me into the position because they had to cover for vacations that were coming up at the time. With the promise they would help me out along the way, I was written up the first week for something I did not know. 8 Months later disqualified and put on a step 3 for me not recognizing the wrong chart had been put in an outdated machine by somone before me with 20+ years more experience. 

However, the biggest issue in this plant besides the lack of communication, is the lack of leadership. You will not see a supervisor out of their office unless it is to go to one of their 3 meetings a day, get food out of the break room, or to ensure a start-up happens early so they can get a "green hour" on the start-up and ensure a bonus for themselves. 

Beyond these day-to-day issues, it is worth mentioning how management of this company has mishandled their staff in the midst of our current health crisis, Covid-19. Governor Tom Wolf executed a stay at home order, yet management thought that it was a great time to bring in extra temps to work hours within the building. Not only did they put us at risk through exposing us—essential workers—to MORE people than necessary, their negligence could have easily been avoided by utilizing the staff they already employed. As we have learned throughout this pandemic, minimizing the number of people you interact with is crucial for minimizing the spread. Management, however, said they were doing their part by checking employee temperatures at the guard shack before shifts. But as anyone with a TV or a phone knows, people can be asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus. They would have been further ahead to limit who they had working in the building at any given time. 

Finally, Welch’s is quick to terminate and will not justly evaluate situations that have been poorly managed by supervisors. After working 55 hours in a week, I was given permission by a supervisor to leave my shift early, only to be bombarded with pictures of a half done clean up. As if me staying the next hour on the shift would have made much of a difference. To be clear, first shift still came in, cleaned as scheduled, and began on time as scheduled. No loss of money, product, or time.  If anything, my leaving an hour early—WITH permission—saved them an hour of double time because that is the rate on a Sunday. Nonetheless, I was let go of the next day. 

I have worked a ridiculous amount of overtime for this company. More than most. Any time a supervisor asked someone to stay, I would volunteer. This did not seem to matter in my exit meeting. I would classify myself as dedicated and hardworking, neither of which were considered before they swiftly terminated me. While the unemployment rate is the highest it’s ever been, they kicked me to the curb over a single hour and didn’t blink. The supervisor bore no responsibility for allowing me to leave an hour early, and the outcome (in terms of cleaning and production) was the same as if I had stayed that last hour. Sound like a company that cares about its employees? This is just one of the many horror stories you can expect to hear while working at Welch’s, a family company! I hope this information is helpful in your employment search.

If you can get inside the building. If it is not your card being faulty or failing to schedule you, or the security guard preventing you from entering because you're exact name isn't on a piece of paper. You will receive training from other interns and temps, not from the coordinators or supervisors. Then you will be punished for your poor training from a guy who was supposed to train you. You can't get ahold of HR. You then will shove food down on your breaks that have been reduced to 15 minutes. You will go back and soon learn that this job doesn't require anything more than common sense. Then you go home and come back the next day and do it all over again.

I have never talked too management except for my first day or when something is broken. They never talk to you directly and treat you like a number from day one. They're desperate for leaders, but refuse to hire in temps or increase their wages/benefits.

The bathrooms smells like septic and you go home smelling like septic. So people really know you work at Welch's. Hair nets are required even without hair or clean shaven face, Its more like a uniform than a requirement. Oh you can be early and not be paid for it, but you will leave when instructed and your pay will be deducted. So don't leave until your scheduled time is up. 

The hardest part of the job is getting other people to do their job, and holding management and higher-ups accountable for leaving early and not being capable enough to run the plant.

Leaving and going home will be the happiest part of your day.

The work days fluctuate depending on many variables.

I’ve learned skills that I can take to other companies with similar pay and benefits if I ever decided to leave. I’m thankful for that. 

The management has to deal with many things throughout the workday and they are people with a job to do just like us operators. I’ve come to learn the people here that carry frustration week by week tend to hold a grudge on supervisors for doing their job. I don’t believe in holding a grudge against someone for doing their job and I’ve been treated fairly.

You have to have more competence than the average person and some form of work ethic in order to maintain the job. They train people with other operators which can be hard to manage. You have to actually want to learn in order to know what you’re doing on the job. If you slack before you get to know anything then you won’t last long. The hardest part of the job varies depending on your bid, however I will say that learning the machines here can be complicated especially if you have to learn all of them. 

I feel accomplished when I learn new things here. I understand the frustration of the job from the bad days and I’m thankful for the good days. It is a job. The people I’m friends with here are phenomenal. I was given this opportunity and I didn’t waste it. I’ve seen people in and out like a revolving door. I couldn’t hate Welch’s even if I tried. (But I do say I hate it every now and then lol I just don’t mean it). Truly thankful for the job and I would recommend it especially if you’re young.



I worked in IT. there was no step forward, no ability to do anything. everything is 'controlled;. you get no say, no input. just do as you are told, if you are indeed told there is no warning. management only cares about the 'corporate office'.  there is little to no communication, updating takes years. typical east coast mentality of 'corp knows best, just fall in line. Corp controls everything and does not care about the plants, who do the work. simple emails takes days for a response if ever. i took a title downgrade, and a 75% positional downgrade, but hey, they sold the job well. once in, i had absolutely no ability to do anything but sit and wait to be told. all decisions are made at Corp, with no regard to localities. i learned nothing, had no ability to be involved, and had no future there. it was a lost cause, and did not help a progression forward in the least. a very bad personal choice of a position.  I did zero IT work for 9 months, nothing. they farm it all out to contracts and MSP providers. internal IT does ZERO in the plants. Do not go there looking for progression of a career. i would recommend no one to us this as an experience step. it is a step backwards. 

A day at work was typically started in a shift meeting where we were informed of what was happening for our shift. Not always was the information correct but once we went to our work areas our coworkers were able to tell us what was happening with better detail and accuracy. The work environment felt like at times combative with the attitude that management was better than all the other people. While they tried to make us feel as though out opinions mattered it was obvious to us that it was a show. The company overall was a good company for the most part to work for. We had good pay and benefits but the overtime was never addressed satisfactorily and more times than not so many people with families did not get much notice or consideration when it came to overtime. What made the job tolerable was the family like group of people that I worked with. We all watched each others kids grow, we helped each other with tough family issues and laughed and cried together. I miss that the most.

Left a decent job with steady house to work at Welch's Northeast. As part of my job offer i was told i'do me bounced between 2nd and 3rd shift, I would also be learning a "skilled labor" job that paid $6 more an hr. I was also informed that they did not force you to work double. 

What they failed to mention was that being bounced around was day-to-day not week-to-week. Their schedule department has no idea what they are doingoing and there is no rhyme or reason to what they are doing. They don't release a schedule until the day before and will often change it several times  through out the day. 

Was scheduled for 2 doubles within the first 6 days I was there and they also failed to schedule in the skilled labor job they promised. When I tried to speak to hr about all these issues they simply enter responded with "I'll accept your resignation."

I would have spent 30 more years at this facility if I didn't have to relocate for family. I absolutely loved coming into the plant every day, despite a fast paced and sometimes stressful environment. The challenges kept me motivated and excited. The people in the Lawton plant are just about the best you could ever work with. Most have been with the company for 30-40 years and have been through a lot with downsizing that occurred back in 2010-2013, but they continue to come in and work hard every day. Management is respectful, helpful, encouraging, and treat you like family. Hours are long during grape pressing season, but it is a fun operation to see and be a part of. Corporate employees were all very friendly and helpful, all the way up through the CEO. I don't have words to express how much I miss my job at Welch's and the people who made it such a great experience.

Seniority is on of the most important things at Welch’s. Employees constantly throw each other under the bus if they have higher seniority by making people with lower seniority stay late and work weekends so they don’t have to. They also make people with lower seniority do most of the work for pretty much all of the different roles while those with higher seniority just sits and watches. Management doesn't do anything to change this, in fact they almost encourage it which is very wrong if you ask me. Management also doesn’t communicate or plan anything very well at all either, you will find yourself doing an impossible amount of work in a day because they didn’t think ahead or do any kind of actual planning.

A typical day at work involved working together as a team, which we did very well.  The camaraderie was very nice.  This helped me learn how to function with a diverse work force.  The hardest part of this job was the fact that the line was very fast-paced, and it was sometimes difficult to keep pace.  However, this also fueled my determination to do the best I could in keeping up; it became a daily goal for me to be better than the day before.

typical day; get turnover from previous shift,carryover work etc, assign jobs for technicians, monitor production lines, optimize performance. Monitor support utilities-waste treatment, refigeration plant for bulk storage. steam supply etc. 
Learned; skills in dealing with subordinates, peers, higher management.
Management;High performance, fast paced, focused
co-workers;great group of people, dedicated
Hardest part of job; 50-80hr/wk normal
Most enjoyable; developing subordinates skills, solving challanging issues

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Production operator 2 salaries reported	$29.30 per hour
Instrument technician 2 salaries reported	$37.00 per hour
Maintenance technician 4 salaries reported	$30.63 per hour
Maintenance manager 7 salaries reported	$135,000 per year
Production supervisor 3 salaries reported	$80,000 per year

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