ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 12, 1996 TAG: 9601120018
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DUBLIN
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY STAFF WRITER
MANY WORKERS SCRAMBLE to reorganize their lives. Some sign up for classes. Volvo GM says it doesn't know when or if workers will be called back.
Harry Fowle has been through it all before - the layoff, the unemployment checks, the paperwork to qualify for federal funding to go back to school.
The 38-year-old Blacksburg resident is one of 190 being laid off at Volvo GM Heavy Truck Corporation's Dublin plant. He recognized one of the job counselors Thursday afternoon as he filled out paperwork at the United Auto Workers Union Local 2069 office to take business courses at New River Community College.
It was the same counselor he met in 1991 when he was laid off from the Radford Army Ammunition plant.
"I was really surprised," said Fowle, who started as an inspector in Volvo GM's paint and body shop May 22. "I've gone - in seven months - from my ship has come in to trying to avoid bankruptcy."
Today is the final work day at the Dublin plant for Fowle and other laid-off workers. Volvo GM has blamed the layoffs on a decreasing number of truck orders, a problem throughout the industry that has prompted several other major truck manufacturers to make similar cuts.
Representatives from Administrative Training & Service Inc. on Thursday helped Fowle and other workers develop plans for after their last day of work. The agency administers a federal program for dislocated workers that helps pay for additional education after a layoff.
"A lot of them are wanting to wait and see," said Gerald Griswold, head of AT&S. "There's a general belief that they'll be called back.
"We always try to convince them to look at their lives, look at the future and not be reliant on what-ifs and maybes," he added.
According to their United Auto Workers Union contracts, workers who have been laid off can be called back or rehired as new employees until the year 2000. Plant Manager James Cox said many workers have asked him when and if that might happen.
"I really can't tell, that's what I've been telling them," Cox said.
"You can tell by the number of people we're letting go, we've tried to minimize the number of people we've tried to lay off," he added.
Pam Thomas, who is losing her job on the production line, said many workers are hoping to get their jobs back within the next few months. The Hillsville resident wants to return to her old job, but plans to take computer classes just in case the heavy truck market does not improve. Like Fowle, she has been laid off before.
"If they called me back, yeah I'd come back," she said. "But there's always that possibility I won't be called back."
The Greensboro, N.C.-based company announced in November it would lay off 100 to 150 workers, but a month later the company increased to 200 to 250 as truck orders continued to decline. Cox said the company ultimately was able to hold layoffs to 190 by making various adjustments, though he would not elaborate on what they were.
Since the November announcement, the Dublin plant has incrementally decreased the number of trucks it produces each day from 80 to 56. Cox said he does not expect the plant's production to fall below that level.
This layoff brings the number of workers at the plant down to about 1,500.
And despite the downturn, Volvo GM is proceeding with a $200 million expansion, which includes a high volume paint facility and cab assembly plant. The expansion is slated to be completed in late 1996 and will create about 100 jobs.
Fowle, who was making $14.68 an hour at Volvo GM, said the high pay and benefits would bring him back if the market improves. But Fowle said he is tired of the ups and downs of manufacturing work and dreams of opening a photography shop. He is taking a small-business administration course at New River Community College during the spring semester.
Sitting in the union office, Fowle joked with Linda Matthews, the AT&S counselor he had worked with in 1991. In between the jokes, however, Matthews said it was hard to see Fowle again.
"You hurt for these people," she said. "You hurt for what they lose."
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/Staff. Harry Fowle talks with an AT&Sby CNBrepresentative about his
future. color.