Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 7, 1993 TAG: 9303070109
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
ARSENAL WORKERS REELING
Some arsenal workers call it "The Bump."When an area of the plant closes, workers with seniority and training in other areas can switch departments and stay employed, bumping other workers out of those positions.
The process takes a few weeks, says Ken Thompson, president of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union. And until it's over, there is an agonizing wait.
When the arsenal announced on Friday that another 350 workers would be laid off because of a February explosion in the plant's nitroglycerin area, the bumping process began again for the 290 hourly employees.
And so did the waiting.
"Needless to say, it's upsetting to know you're going to be facing a layoff when there are no jobs out there to look forward to," Thompson said Saturday.
The union hall was closed this weekend, and the layoffs - attributed to the plant's efforts to automate and therefore enhance safety in the nitroglycerin areas - had been announced late Friday. Thompson said Saturday he had seen few of the workers likely to be affected.
But he said workers have experienced the same feelings again and again since 1991.
"Since those layoffs started, we've been working not knowing one day to the next if we'd have jobs or not," he said.
Workers will be eligible for retraining assistance under the federal Trade Readjustment Act, Thompson said.
If there was anything good about the last layoffs, it was that they were announced before school semesters began. This time, the layoffs come in the middle, and workers won't be able to begin retraining until summer.
Salaried workers do not work on the bumping system, and it is likely they will leave the plant for good in about three weeks, said Nicole Kinser, the arsenal's public affairs officer.
Kinser said the arsenal will be conducting workshops over the next few weeks to assist workers in job searches.
Until an explosion in one of the plant's nitroglycerin areas last month, things were looking good for the workers, at least until year's end, Thompson said.
But now, workers are unsure of what the next months will bring.
"We never really know what's happening at that place," Thompson said. "The Army could say it's not making this or that anymore and we're in a layoff situation."
The explosion, he said, "couldn't have come at a worse time."
Kinser said it will take about a year to fully automate the area of the plant where the explosion occurred.
But the layoffs will begin now, Kinser said, and the Army has stockpiled enough nitroglycerin products to handle orders until production is resumed.
Ralph Murray, a worker who was laid off in January after 32 years, has started a support group for salaried workers.
Many of the salaried employees laid off have worked at the arsenal for years, he said, and have a hard time coping.
The group meets twice a month, and Murray said he expects the 50-person membership to rise with this latest layoff.
"To a lot of people, it's a trauma," Murray said.
The group discusses workers' rights and how to deal with the layoffs in general, he said.
"We just help each other and support each other," said Delores Snell, the group's secretary.
One week, her supervisor congratulated her on 20 years of service. "The next week, she tells me I'm going out the door."