Governor and Commerce Secretary tour Woonsocket businesses

October 29, 2021 12:27 pm

Laura Pugliese,

WOONSOCKET, R.I. (WLNE) – Governor Dan McKee, Secretary of Commerce Stefan Pryor, and Woonsocket Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt toured several businesses Friday morning to see how they were recovering from the pandemic.

“We’re learning as we’re going. So today, just like in the city, we’re learning there’s a shortage of CDL drivers, there’s a shortage of truck drivers just in general, office staff isn’t as challenging, but we do find it even in the City of Woonsocket,” Mayor Baldelli-Hunt said.

One of the businesses they toured was fine foods distributor Ace Endico. The President and Owner, Michael Endico, says they’re struggling most with labor and supply chain shortages.

“It’s been a tremendous challenge. One with labor; it was very, very difficult to find labor and the right labor,” Endico said. “Of every 100 cases we order, we get 60. So we’re running about 60% of what we order. It’s everything from heavy cream to French fries to chicken tenders, you name it.”

Governor McKee says Rhode Island is leading the Northeast and is second in the country in terms of economic recovery, but still, businesses are struggling with hiring and keeping staff. He says he plans to use some of the $1.1-billion American Rescue Funds to find out why.

“We need to really figure out why employees are still on the sideline because they’re no longer collecting the federal benefit and then where the employers need that help and how to bring them both together,” Governor McKee said. “Unless we’re able to do that, we’re not going to keep the place of leading the country in our economic recovery.”

The Governor is now proposing a 10% down payment of the ARPA funds to keep businesses afloat and recovery strong until they figure out how exactly to spend the rest of the money.

“We’re the victim of our own success,” Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor said. “Our economy is very high compared to other states, but that means that our worker shortage is a problem and to sustain that momentum, we need to make the economic investment the governor proposes.”