Two long-time pressman retire from Tonawanda printing facility
Feb. 25—Two longtime press operators at the North Tonawanda facility where the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal and the Niagara Gazette are printed are retiring.
John Weir and Mike Kozlowski left behind their jobs after putting in 40 years and 15 years of service respectively. Weir retired this past Friday while Kozlowski will start his retirement after this coming Friday.
"Mike and John had years of printing and press skills, something that will be hard to replace," said North Tonawanda Print Site manager Chris Mesler. "Both are dedicated workers and come in when you needed them."
Born and raised in North Tonawanda, Weir got his job out of college in August 1983 when a friend who ran the mail room asked if he wanted to work there.
"I started as part-time which turned into full-time very quickly and I never left," Weir said, with his first roles being a mailer who stacks papers off the press and a page who takes physical ads to the advertisers for approval before they run in the paper. "Within a year I became a press operator, and I continued that until last Friday."
Koslowski had been a pressman at the River Road facility for the past 15 years, having worked in various jobs over a 40-year period. A West Seneca native, he had worked for Cheektowaga-based Charm Graphics before joining the press operation.
"It was just about operating the press, getting papers down the street," Koslowski said.
The Gazette and the US&J once shared the NT Print Site with now-closed sister newspapers the Tonawanda News and the Medina Journal-Register. Together, the four papers had total circulation numbers of 57,000 papers at their height.
Other local publications that have rolled off the press at the NT Print Site include Niagara Frontier Publications, UB Spectrum student newspaper, the Niagara County Bee and the United Automobile Workers newspaper, as well as "special section" tabloid inserts and the US&J-produced weekly Hometown Extra.
The press at the NT Print Site is the same one used when Weir started working there in 1983, but the way the paper was put together has changed quite a bit since then. Previously, the paper layout was shot on a large camera, with the film as big as a newspaper page, and it was developed in a darkroom. The press operators would burn that film onto plates and use them to print the day's edition. Now, that process is more simplified as pages go straight from computer to plate.
There also used to be two shifts in the press room, as the Lockport, Tonawanda and Medina papers were printed in the morning and delivered in the afternoon, while the Gazette was printed at night and delivered in the morning. The past seven years saw all press workers move to one shift as the remaining papers are all on a morning delivery cycle.
For the past five years, Weir served as the lead pressman who was in charge of every aspect of the operation to ensure deadlines were met.
Now 62 years old, Weir said age is the main reason for his retirement. So far his retirement plans focus on traveling.
As for Kozlowski, after being in the workforce for 45 years, "it just felt like it was time," he said. His retirement plans revolve around golfing, spending time with his family, and trying to play guitar.
"We did a good job of keeping it together and running," Weir said, adding that he could recall only three instances over the past 40 years when the NT Print Site did not manage to get papers out on time. The most recent instance was during the Christmas 2022 blizzard when none of the employees could get inside the facility. The other instances were due to power outages. On those days, papers were printed at the Buffalo News' printing facility instead.
Said Mesler, who has known Weir since joined the press operation in 1998, "He's a very knowledgable pressman and we're going to miss that."
"The same goes with Mike," he added.
