Matti has worked for Amerplast for over 35 years, ever since 1984. He started his career in the carrier bag converting in Amerplast’s carrier bag factory in Tampere, Finland. At the time, the founder (the company was founded in 1952), Sami Suominen, was still working in the company. Originally the young man thought he would work for the company only for a couple of months but he had already worked in the converting department for over 20 years before he started working in the carrier bag factory’s maintenance team. After that, he has been working as a Process Operator in different production processes.
At Amerplast, Matti has learned the trade and the required skills. He remembers how he worked alongside with an older blacksmith in the maintenance department and learned how almost anything can be fixed. Matti says that he enjoys repairing and fixing things. While he was working in Amerplast, he also studied electrical power engineering and plastic mechanics qualifications. Not only has he developed his know-how and expertise, he has also gained more significance in his daily work with further education.
Great colleagues are important. At Amerplast many employees have long backgrounds in the company and they also spend time together in their free time. Over the years, Matti has learned how to get along with different kinds of people and how to understand and respect other people’s values and ways. This is important at any job. The working community is important for Matti and he worked as a shop steward for the converters for almost 20 years and, after that, shorter runs in other departments. At the moment, he is the deputy chief shop steward in Amerplast’s Tampere factory. He has also worked as the chairman of the local branch trade union for 20 years.
Currently Matti is working in the Tampere packaging plant’s converting department as a process operator. The work requires precision because, in addition to running the production process, he is responsible for monitoring the quality of the laminated products. He also needs to take care of the physical wellbeing to have more energy both at work and at home.
“Great things about this work are a certain kind of stability and regularity. When you are at work, you are responsible for doing your job well and precisely but, when you go home, you can just forget about the work for a while”, Matti says. “I’ve liked working for Amerplast and today also my youngest son works in the same factory.”
He sees the plastic industry as the industry of the future because plastic as a material is better than its reputation. It is durable, lightweight and recyclable. The plastic itself doesn’t cause harm for the environment but it’s the people who throw it into nature. In Matti’s own household, everything is separately sorted and recycled, including the plastic packaging.
