Tour Highlights Members’ Recovery Strategies, Workforces

TRSA staff continues their Reopening Tour with a Northeast U.S. segment from Nov. 1-5, motoring from the association’s Alexandria, VA, headquarters as far north as New Hampshire. The 700 road miles will extend the 2021 effort to meet members nationwide to more than 6,000 miles, encountering more than 70 member companies and 80 business locations.

The tour, with previous segments covering the Southeast, Midwest and California, has highlighted the reopening of the economy in the wake of COVID-19 and its impact on the linen, uniform and facility services industry. TRSA media coverage has underscored how members’ workforces deliver the industry’s essential services, supporting critical infrastructure from healthcare to food processing, manufacturing, logistics and other industries.

TRSA social media coverage of the trip as it unfolds will be published on TRSA’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn pages. Covering the previous tour segments, videos have featured member companies’ staff explaining why the industry has been a great employer, including some benefiting from the work to help overcome personal obstacles, such as prison background, homelessness and single parenthood. Executives and managers have discussed the various challenges they have faced from the pandemic, such as labor and supply shortages, and describing strategies for overcoming them.

Photos have depicted reinvestment in the industry, including renovation to increase production capacity; addition or replacement of equipment, such as machinery for boiler rooms and sorting decks and new trucks; and equipment rebuilding.

These posts have promoted the industry as a service provider and employer. Links to participating members’ social media pages have enabled members to share these with their customers and prospects.

The Northeast segment includes a Nov. 3 Town Hall discussion in New York for local members to bring them up to speed on the latest developments in TRSA advocacy for the industry in New York and nationwide. They’ll also learn about TRSA’s efforts to promote linen, uniform and facility services across the range of customer industries served as well as point out TRSA activities that improve laundries’ internal operations. Speakers will be TRSA President and CEO Joseph Ricci and Government Relations VP Kevin Schwalb.