Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 2, 1990 TAG: 9003023327
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Long
And for nearly three months, he had been assured by higher-ups at the plant that his job - all jobs at the plant - were safe.
"The foremen talked to us in December to quell rumors about a big layoff in February," said Smith, a former tractor-trailer driver. "It looked like jobs were secure."
But the rumors became a reality last week and Smith got his "bumping papers" from Hercules Inc., which operates the plant under Army contract.
He was one of 70 who got notices. Monday was his last day and the rest were gone by Wednesday.
"I'm worried. I got one kid going into high school next year and another going into college. They need to eat," said Smith, 46, who has a third son in the Army. "It's not really a good time of year to be looking for a job with everybody else getting laid off."
Although layoffs had been rumored for months, Smith said, "It was still a shock."
Smith and others say they were shocked because there was no warning. The first "bumping" forms notifying 70 workers they'd lose their jobs were handed out as they showed up for the Feb. 22 midnight shift.
That was just 10 hours after union officials were told of the layoffs. Prior to that, the union and the workers had been assured that jobs were safe for the upcoming year.
"There should have been more advanced notice of the reduction in force," said Lowell "Pete" Strader, president of local No. 3-495 of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union.
When the plant commander, Army Lt. Col. Richard D'Andrea, announced in late January that 300 jobs would have to be cut this year for budget reasons, he assured workers that "adjustments can be made without layoffs." He said the "natural attrition" of the usual 30 to 40 plant workers retiring or quitting each month easily would amount to 300 by the September deadline.
It wasn't happening that way, so layoffs became necessary.
There had been skepticism about management's promise of stability, but the layoffs still provoked an angry union response.
"We were ticked at the fact that we were lead to believe that attrition would take care of this," Strader said. "If attrition wasn't taking care of it, they should have given people more time, more warning. It wouldn't have been such a shock."
Chuck Lee, Hercules director of human resources, said this week no further layoffs were expected, but "there's always that chance."
D'Andrea blames the low attrition rate on layoffs and pending layoffs at such other New River Valley companies as AT&T and Burlington Industries in Pulaski County.
The union at the arsenal has been told again there should be no more layoffs any time soon, but Strader said Hercules' handling oflast week's layoffs may have damaged union trust in future company statements.
"They [workers] were being misled into thinking that rumors were not true about a pending layoff," Strader said. "That has helped stir more rumors and people are more concerned about the possibility of future layoffs and not knowing."
Bob Shepherdson, president of Hercules' ordnance group at its headquarters in Wilmington, Del., said they can't assure total job security because it's not in their hands.
The Army tells Hercules how much propellant for guns and rockets to make. That varies throughout the year depending on the U.S. defense budget, Shepherdson said.
And lately, the amount of money available and the amount of propellant Hercules produces in Radford has been dropping.
"The bad thing about the ammunition plant is that if there's not a good war going on, there's no real need for us," Smith said. "It's not like the food business or something like that where you eat all the time whether you're fighting or not."
And it doesn't look like any good wars are around the corner. In fact, as the United States moves toward a friendlier relationship with the Soviet Union, the need for the firepower made at the plant will continue to recede.
Because of that, the Army is now looking at other ammunition plants to either close or put into layaway status, said Bob Whistine, spokesman for the U.S. Army Armamment Munitions Chemical Command in Rock Island, Ill., which oversees the Army's 27 ammunition plants.
Meantime, Smith and the other laid-off workers were offered the option of taking a job at another Army plant in New Jersey.
"But we would have to give up seniority and pay our own moving expenses," Smith said.
Instead, Smith had planned to meet at the plant this week with Virginia Employment Commission workers to apply for jobs and unemployment benefits.
Smith also is applying for jobs locally, at the Corning plant in Blacksburg and Pembroke Telephone Co. But he doesn't hold much hope. "It's like playing the Virginia lottery. There's so many people wanting those jobs," he said.
by CNB