Narrative Statement & Supplemental Materials
All nominations must include a narrative statement and supplemental materials (minimum of three, high-resolution images), and hand signed multimedia agreement.Narrative Statement: Please upload a Word document or PDF that clearly state how the QLICI met each of the criteria listed at the top of this form (1,000-word maximum).
Williams Sausage is constructing a new $48MM food processing facility in the rural town of Union City, Tennessee. The project is expected to create 210 jobs with health, and retirement benefits in a community that has experienced numerous employers shuttering the local operations since The Great Recession. This expansion by both Williams and its support industries will help mitigate the job displacement from recent plant closures in the community. Primary manufacturing jobs have an impact in secondary jobs such as those in the retail and service sector. In addition, the Project will trigger additional investment in the community as linked industries locate and/or expand to support the increased demand for goods and services due to the Williams facility expansion.
Many of Williams’ jobs will not require advanced degrees. Williams is committed to working with the local workforce development agencies to ensure access for low-income residents to the jobs created. Williams will work with local workforce development agencies to interview minority candidates and a GC willing to work towards a best efforts goal of 20% spend with local MBEs. Williams will use the Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development for training initiatives and source potential employees from their trained labor pool.
Additionally, Williams hires through relationships with local and regional trade schools and community colleges and collaborates with these schools to develop the next generation of technicians and professionals. Williams will work to review applications from the Certified Production Technician Pathway to Advanced Manufacturing Program through Dyersburg State Community Collegeand Tennessee College of Applied Technologyand will give preference to interviewing applicants who have received certifications through the following programs: Certified Production Technician, Motors/Motor Controls, Electrical, Digital Circuits and Networking, Programmable Logic Controllers
The project is located in a census tract that is 50% minority and the Union City region is about 25% minority. Williams’s expected workforce is conservatively estimated to be 50% minority. There is a high Hispanic population in the surrounding census tracts, and Williams has tapped into that workforce and believes the make-up of the employees at the new locations will be similar to the current demographic.
Williams has been actively involved in the local community since 1958. The Company has cultivated and will maintain and bolster strong relations to share civic goals with the local Union City community. Roger Williams spoke to his alma mater, University Tennessee Martin, about running a business local saying, of “For the community, one thing I like about being family owned is that our money stays here. When a big corporation owns the company, the payroll is here and it’s good for the jobs, but our money doesn’t go off to Chicago or somewhere else. It stays in the local economy. We use local vendors as much as we can” he said. The community also benefits from the business being family owned and operated. “I’ve grown up in the community,” Roger said. “I know the county and the city leaders. If we need something, we know who to contact and they have really been good to help us. When we built out here, there was no infrastructure—water lines, electric lines, sewer lines. As we grew, we had to put all that stuff in. Our water and our sewer come from Union City, which is 10 miles away.”