Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 3, 1991 TAG: 9104030419
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELANIE HATTER and KEVIN KITTREDGE/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
The government-owned plant is receiving fewer orders because of the declining defense budget, said Nicole L. Kinser, a plant spokeswoman. She said the end of the Persian Gulf War played no role in the drop in orders.
Hercules Inc., of Wilmington, Del., operates the plant for the Army.
Employees with low seniority in both wage and salary positions will be permanently laid off over the next two weeks, she said. "Certainly, no one here is happy about it," Kinser said.
Union officials got word of the layoffs about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, said Ken Thompson, president of Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union Local 3-495.
A plant official told him between 341 and 350 people would lose their jobs, Thompson said. He said the cuts would come in the propellant, maintenance and quality-control departments, as well as from some salaried positions.
Laid-off workers may seek jobs in other departments, where they may claim the jobs - or "bump" - workers with less seniority. Eventually, "Three hundred and fifty of the least-senior people should be going out the gate," said Luther Woolwine, the union vice president.
There was talk of layoffs in the rumor mill, but Thompson said workers he had talked to were shocked by the number of jobs cut.
A stream of workers began arriving at the union office midafternoon Tuesday, some holding their "bumping papers" in their hands. They have 48 hours to fill out the papers and return them, Thompson said.
"The way things were at work, I just knew something was going to happen," said plant worker Laura Gibson. She said she has enough seniority to hold onto a job "a while longer. But I hate it [the layoffs]. There will definitely be some going out the gate."
Leonard O'Dell also expected to find another job within the plant. "I've been there eight years. I'd better," he said.
Gary Evans, who has worked at the plant four years and three months, said, "It's going to be borderline for me."
Evans also said he has become used to making good money. "There ain't much else out there," he said. "Everybody's laying off. It's pitiful."
Mel Fiel, job services manager of the Virginia Employment Commission in Radford, said laid-off employees can expect "slim pickings." There are few jobs available, especially high-paying ones, he said.
The commission has been swamped with people looking for work. Fiel said 6,000 people are registered as unemployed at the Radford office and 7,475 in the entire New River Valley, including Montgomery, Pulaski, Floyd and Giles counties, plus Radford.
The ammunition plant employs 3,889, after laying off 34 workers last month.
About 130 jobs had been due for elimination in February but were saved when the Army put in an order for TNT to replenish supplies for the war. Kinser said in March that the order might fall through. Plant officials would not comment on the status of the TNT order Tuesday.
Last year, 70 workers were laid off in February when the Army decided to buy most of the propellant used in tank rockets from a plant in Germany.
Also Tuesday, Hercules stock dropped sharply - from $41.25 to $36 per share - after news broke that the company was the manufacturer of a developmental rocket engine destroyed during its first static test firing Monday in California. The cause of the incident was not immediately known.
by CNB