ARSENAL'S 5-DAY UNPAID LEAVES END AFTER MARCH

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 24, 1993                   TAG: 9303240171
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FAIRLAWN                                LENGTH: Medium
ARSENAL'S 5-DAY UNPAID LEAVES END AFTER MARCH
Hercules Inc. has decided that March is the only month during which salaried workers at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant will have to take five days of unpaid leave.
Nicole Kinser, public affairs officer for the arsenal, said the leaves were discontinued because high overhead costs have been offset by the 350 layoffs announced two weeks ago.
The plan had been announced this month as a result of the Feb. 14 explosion that destroyed a nitroglycerin storehouse and slowed production.
It affected all salaried personnel except some uniformed security guards. Even Skip Hurley, the plant's general manager, will lose some pay because of the furloughs.
The propellant plant also temporarily laid off about 300 production workers because of the explosion.
Some furloughed production workers have returned to work, some were among the 350 laid off and others still are waiting to be called back to work, Kinser said.
More than a month after the blast, the arsenal's nitroglycerin operations still haven't been resumed and production still isn't 100 percent, Kinser said.
Nitroglycerin operations are one of the primary components of the propellant made at the arsenal.
A team of Army investigators left the arsenal March 12, but Kinser said it could be two months before a report is released. Injuries were avoided because the explosion happened in a building that was fully automated for safety reasons a year earlier.
Arsenal officials blame the blast for its latest round of job cuts.
Of the 350 to be laid off, 290 are hourly employees and 60 are salaried.
The salaried workers have been notified, and their last day of work is April 2, Kinser said. Wage workers will leave about the same time, depending on how long it takes the bumping process based on seniority to be completed.
More than 2,000 workers have lost their jobs in the last two years, leaving the arsenal with 1,676 workers. At its peak during World War II, the arsenal employed about 10,000 people.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB