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

DATE: TUESDAY, May 18, 1993                   TAG: 9305180133
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Mag Poff
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FIRST UNION TO LAY OFF 200 AT D.C.-AREA BANK

First Union Corp. said Monday it will lay off 200 people from First American Metro Corp. when its merger of the Washington-area bank is completed at the end of June. Another 900 workers will be placed on temporary status for gradual phase-out.

The job reductions will have no impact in the Roanoke Valley or Southwest Virginia, said R. Jeep Bryant, spokesman for First Union in Charlotte, N.C.

But 23 of the terminated positions and 26 of the temporary-status jobs are in the Shenandoah Valley between Harrisonburg and Winchester. Another 32 layoffs and 86 temporaries are in the District of Columbia. The rest are in Northern Virginia.

Most of the layoffs are in staff and operational functions at First American's headquarters at McLean. Decisions regarding branch consolidations will be made in September.

The reductions result from combining the operations of First American Bank with prior acquisitions of Dominion Bank, Meritor Savings Bank and Sailors and Merchants Bank and Trust.

First American has a work force of 2,965 people. In February, First Union agreed to pay $453 million for First American's banks in Virginia, Maryland and the district. The banks have 174 offices and $4.6 billion in assets.

Ben Jenkins, president of Roanoke-based First Union National Bank of Virginia, the First Union unit that is absorbing First American-Metro, said many of the displaced people will be eligible for other jobs in the company.

First Union eliminated about 1,200 positions when it bought Dominion Bankshares Corp. of Roanoke last year.

by CNB