Slant/Fin slates 122 more layoffs; union fears total shutdown
Baseboard heating equipment maker Slant/Fin facility in Greenvale in 2016. Credit: Howard Schnapp
Slant/Fin Corp. will lay off about two-thirds of its remaining workforce by the end of September in a move that follows the release of 68 workers on March 31, according to government filings.
The Greenvale maker of heating systems disclosed in a state filing that it will sack 122 of its remaining 182 employees from June 30 to September 30, but a union representative said he believes that the business will be shuttered and the entire workforce discharged.
In January, after the company announced the layoffs of 68 workers, chief financial officer Charles Famoso said that the company planned to retain 175 to 200 workers and continue manufacturing boilers.
Calls seeking comment from Famoso and chairman Adam Dubin were not immediately returned.
A related company, Slantco Manufacturing Co. Inc., also announced layoffs in January. Glen Cove-based Slantco, which produces parts used by Slant/Fin and is run by the same management team, said it would close the facility and lay off all 17 employees from May 15 to June 15.
Slant/Fin sold its baseboard heating business for an undisclosed price in April 2021 to Mestek Inc., based in Westfield, Massachusetts. Mestek took over manufacturing of the baseboard units and gained the right to use the Slant/Fin brand.
Humberto Leon, president of Local 485, International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America, which represents Slant/Fin and Slantco workers, said he was certain that the company was in the process of dissolving step by step.
"By June 30, everybody's gone," he said.
The company retained all its workers through the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Leon said, but the recently announced layoffs will create difficult choices for a workforce with specific skills and more than 30 employees over the age of 60.
"They know everything about boilers and baseboards," he said. "They don't know anything more than that."
Richard Kessel, chairman of the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency, said there had been no recent efforts by Slant/Fin to seek tax concessions.
Slant/Fin officials said they terminated a 2016 tax-reduction program with the Nassau County IDA and had no related liabilities.
In the filing with the state, Slant/Fin cited the "economic climate" as the reason for the latest round of layoffs and did not specify a date for a plant closing.
Melvin Dubin, a U.S. Army veteran who worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb during World War II, founded the American Slant Fin Radiator Corp. in 1949 in Brooklyn.
The company's interlocking fin design for baseboard heating systems was innovative and made Slant/Fin a familiar name in the building trades.
Dubin died in September 2015 at the age of 92, but his family retained controlling interest in the company and his son, Adam Dubin, became chairman.
Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.
