Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 26, 1992 TAG: 9201270192
SECTION: NEW RIVER VALLEY ECONOMY PAGE: 14 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: FAIRVIEW LENGTH: Long
AT&T'S CLOSING STILL REVERBERATES
When Don Linkous of Christiansburg was laid off at the AT&T plant in Fairlawn in November 1990, he had no idea what he was going to do.Now, unsure if he will have the money to complete an associate degree in police science at New River Community College, Linkous still has no idea what he's going to do.
"It would be nice to get a job here," Linkous said.
Like most of the 1,000 AT&T workers who found themselves without a job a year ago, Linkous, 37, decided to go to school to increase his chances of getting another job.
However, a good job - or any job - is hard to find these days, even with a degree.
Linkous, a 1973 Blacksburg High School graduate, had been a layout operator with the plant for eight years, bringing home about $1,500 a month. Now he gets $696 a month unemployment and is two months behind on his mobile home payments of $346 a month.
"If Don hadn't gone to school, we'd have lost all our hope," said his wife, Darlene. "We can't even get into low-income housing because our credit is so bad now."
"We're just so far in debt now we can't pay anything," Don Linkous said. "We were kind of like the middle class" before the layoff.
In addition to his AT&T job, Don Linkous had worked part time at a delicatessen. After the layoff, he also gave up the part-time job so he could get unemployment benefits. There was no way he and his family could survive on minimum wage from a part-time job, he said.
The Linkouses declared partial bankruptcy, which allowed them to keep the trailer and two vehicles that both are more than 10 years old.
The Linkouses were married 12 years ago this month. They have three children and bought their first home in 1985. They financed it through the AT&T credit union.
"It's home until something better," Don Linkous said. Then he shook his head and added, "and to think, we can't even keep something like this."
\ AT&T's union office and employee resource center in Fairlawn is seeing many people worried about their future in the New River Valley, said Laura Walters, project coordinator at the resource center.
Walters keeps in touch with most of the laid-off employees. She helps them enroll in classes, find money for tuition and prepare for job hunting.
"We do a lot of hand-holding through the process and keep an eye out for jobs," she said.
But few jobs are out there.
Bill Burton, president of Communications Workers of America Local 2261, said he is frustrated watching good workers who want to put their skills to use, but simply can't find anything.
"We were ready. We were able to set up people and counsel them. Half had already been through the career assessment and already had a relationship with the unemployment agency," Burton said. "Now they're trained and ready to go to work [but] we need some jobs."
Most employees, like Linkous, took advantage of money provided through a cooperative effort between AT&T and the union called Alliance.
Alliance is coordinated through AT&T's Employee Resource Center and provides college money for employees. Counseling on a career change also is offered.
AT&T offered $2,500 to employees for tuition or relocation expenses when the plant closed, but most laid-off workers used it to relocate, said Walters, the resource center coordinator.
In addition, federal money offered through the Trade Readjustment Act were available after Walters and Burton wrote numerous grants to get it, Burton said.
That money pays up to two years of tuition and supplies, plus mileage if the college is more than 25 miles from a student's home. It also pays a year of unemployment, plus an additional six months of extended benefits if the employee is in school, Walters said.
Walters is finding many people now taking advantage of the money after spending months trying to find a job and realizing they needed to improve their skills, she said.
Most employees "thought they'd work with AT&T forever" and were unprepared for a new career, Walters said. Many laid-off workers took one-year classes in cosmetology or truck driving, but most went into mechanics or industrial maintenance, she said.
But some former employees are finding that their benefits are about to run out.
Linkous has enough to get him through May. After that, he's not sure. In a situation like that, Walters said, the resource center will help people find alternative financial aid.
Linkous' dream, like that of many families, was to buy a house with a couple of acres for the children, Jonathan, 10; Joshua 5; and Angela, 3. In the beginning, Darlene Linkous said, "I blamed him for getting laid off and I'd tell him he's not trying hard enough."
Since she was the family accountant, she found herself on the phone trying to explain to creditors why they hadn't paid their bills, she said.
"I never thought this would happen to me," Linkous said. "But this is reality."
\ The lay-off picture is not completely grim for everyone. Some workers who had started classes before the layoffs have earned a degree and found a job.
Mark Kidd, who was laid off after eight years at AT&T, graduated from Radford University's adult education program last May - with honors and a degree in environmental science.
He chose a career completely different from working on a production line and now works in the agricultural lab at Virginia Tech.
Although the position will last only as long as Tech's budget will support it, Kidd, 35, has gotten an excellent start in his new career.
Ideally, he would like to stay in Virginia, perhaps with the state Water Control Board, but he is considering looking out of state if it means getting a stable job.
Being laid off turned out to be a positive experience for Kidd, who lives with his grandmother in Pulaski.
"I'm definitely in a better position" than if he was still with AT&T, he said. The experience taught him "not to be afraid of change and of doing new things."