Slant / Fin Corp. plans to lay off 68 workers after selling its baseboard heater to a company in Massachusetts, according to a government case.
The Greenvale company will continue to make a series of boilers and retain 175 to 200 workers, said CFO Charles Famoso.
The layoffs, represented by Local 485, the International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America, are expected to take place on March 31.
A union employee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Slant / Fin sold its baseboard heat manufacturing business to Mestek Inc., based in Westfield, Massachusetts, in April.
The financial terms of this agreement were not disclosed.
Famoso said Mestek has not offered Slant / Fin workers facing layoffs an opportunity to move to Massachusetts.
In 2016, Slant / Fin agreed to earn $ 3 million in improvements to its 188,650-square-foot factory and warehouse in Greenvale in exchange for tax breaks from the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency.
That deal turned down an offer from Connecticut officials for loans and tax breaks to move operations to Waterbury.
Famoso said the company ended its tax reduction program with IDA and “has no responsibility.”
Slant / Fin was founded in 1949 in Coney Island, Brooklyn, by engineer Melvin Dubin.
Dubin, a veteran of the U.S. Army who worked on the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico, to develop the first atomic bomb during World War II, died in September 2015.
His family maintains a controlling interest in Slant / Fin.
The company’s radiator design innovation – sloping, interlocking fins for increased strength and heat output – made the Slant / Fin name widely recognized in the industry.
The acquisition of Mestek allows the company to use the Slant / Fin name in the marketing of baseboard heaters, Famoso said. Mestek has a broad portfolio of brands in the field of metallurgy and heating, ventilation and air conditioning.
The Greenvale company will continue to operate as Slant / Fin and use the brand for the sale of boilers.
Boilers, like stoves, burn fuel such as heating oil or natural gas for heating the home or commercial. While furnaces heat the air directly, boilers heat water, which is sent through a radiator system.
Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked for The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.
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