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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 10, 1992                   TAG: 9203100082
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NS OFFERING BUYOUTS FOR JOBS OF 550 CLERKS

Norfolk Southern Corp.'s job buyout spree continued Monday, with the railroad offering $35,000 each to 550 clerks working in Roanoke's general offices.

The offer to quit was greeted coolly by local and regional officials with the Transportation-Communication Union, who predicted few workers will apply for the package. Indeed, the buyout likely would be worth only a few thousand dollars more than the average annual salary for clerks in the Roanoke Valley, a union official said.

"It's nothing to get excited about," said Andy Taliaferro, one of union's two district chairmen in Roanoke. "It's the same thing we were offered last time. The carrier turned people down the last time."

Norfolk Southern generally reserves the right to reject applications for any buyout, usually because of its need to retain employees in specific jobs in certain areas. For example, the buyouts announced Monday were extended only to clerks in Norfolk Southern's Roanoke general offices and not its Roanoke terminal.

Clerks - who work in virtually every department of the railroad, from claims to billing to payroll - were last offered buyouts in November 1990.

"I have no idea how many people will apply for it," said David Steele, general chairman for the union's System Board 96, based in Suffolk. "People who are nearing retirement - it's a good enticement for those people to go on . . . out the door."

In addition to a one-time $35,000 payment, the package would offer "certain medical coverage" to clerks who will be over age 55 by March 31. The railroad put a March 20 deadline on applications.

The offer follows a flurry of similar offers made last year to engineers and brakemen. Many brakemen, for example, were offered $110,000 to leave the railroad, but fewer accepted the package than the railroad hoped.

The company's human resources chief, Marcellus Kirchner, described the offer as Norfolk Southern's "ongoing efforts to reduce the size of its work force in order to make its operations more efficient and competitive in the marketplace."

by CNB