Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 15, 1993 TAG: 9301150294
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FAIRLAWN LENGTH: Medium
ARSENAL PAYING LUMP SEVERANCE
Hercules Inc. has changed its mind and agreed to pay a lump-sum severance check to 463 hourly workers being laid off from the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, the arsenal union's vice president said Thursday."We're very pleased with the decision," said Luther Woolwine, vice president of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union.
Under its contract with the union, Hercules, which runs the arsenal for the Army, has the option of paying the severance package in either a lump sum or in weekly installments.
Company officials previously said severance would be paid weekly to laid-off hourly workers only after they presented the company with an unemployment check stub from the Virginia Employment Commission.
The problem was that the workers' severance checks would stop when they found another job. Put simply, for the hourly workers it was: no unemployment check, no severance pay.
Since announcing that 730 workers would be laid off Jan. 20, Hercules has said the 267 salaried workers who would lose their jobs would get their severance package in a lump sum.
Woolwine said the union office was bombarded with hundreds of calls from disgruntled workers saying it was a double standard that penalized hourly workers who found new jobs.
After four or five meetings with union officials, Hercules agreed Wednesday to pay the hourly workers in a lump sum, Woolwine said.
Laid-off workers should get their severance pay on or around Jan. 29, and will not lose any part of the pay if they take a new job, he said.
Hercules General Manager Skip Hurley would not comment.
According to its union contract, Hercules will give the hourly employees two weeks' severance pay for their first year of service at the arsenal and one week's pay for each additional year.
Some workers scheduled to be laid off Jan. 20 already have quit the arsenal and returned to school under a federal retraining program for laid-off workers. They will get the rest of their severance pay in a lump sum, Woolwine said.
Billy Price, a maintenance mechanic at the arsenal for eight years, is due nine weeks' salary - about $4,800 before taxes are taken out.
"It's money we've earned; we deserve to get it in a lump sum," he said.
Several other hourly workers said they also were delighted with the decision.
"It's great news because now it won't be such a hassle for us to get our money," said Lisa Price, a six-year arsenal veteran. "It also gives me, and a lot more people, incentive to go out and look for a new job."
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.