Attorneys for Republican congressional candidate Chris Collins have sent out strongly worded legal notices to television stations requiring them to pull an ad paid for by the House Majority Political Action Committee.
13WHAM is responsible for the truth of third party ads and has never run the ad but is fact checking the claims based on a story you can see here.
The ad, plus a similar one produced by Democratic candidate Kathy Hochul claims Collins laid off 115 workers and cut pay to those remaining. But Collins and a business partner were never involved with Buffalo China and only entered the picture a year *after it closed its doors.
Here are the facts:
*On October 31, 2003 Oneida LTD announced layoffs of 380 Buffalo China workers
*On March 15, 2004 Collins created a new company called Niagara Ceramics.
*Collins purchased the Buffalo China building and hired 240 workers including former pink-slipped Buffalo China workers
The upshot? 115 people did lose their jobs but they were fired by the old owners and not Collins.
Jane Flasch, Reporter
