Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 1, 1993 TAG: 9301010058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHILDRESS LENGTH: Long
FOR IDLED, WORK DOESN'T PAY
Billy Price feels like the Radford Army Ammunition Plant slugged him in the jaw, waited till he crumpled to the ground, then kicked him in the stomach.For eight years, the industrial mechanic has toiled and sweated eight hours a day making sure equipment at the Radford arsenal continues to pump out rocket propellant.
Rarely, if ever, he said, is he offered a word of encouragement from the company's management.
"It's like no one even cares," he said. "Every worker is just a number and a body over there."
That ends Jan. 20.
At age 52, Price will be jobless.
He will join 729 other Radford arsenal employees given pink slips as part of a cost-cutting plan by Hercules Inc., which runs the plant for the Army.
Yet, it's not a situation completely unfamiliar to him.
In 1985, Corning Glass Works shut down its Blacksburg plant and Price found himself out of a maintenance mechanic job that had been his for 19 years.
But getting laid off from the arsenal isn't like losing his job at Corning, Price said.
"At Corning, the management went out of their way to help people losing their job," he said. At the arsenal "they do as little as possible."
What's really got the former Marine riled is a severance pay plan that he said discourages laid-off Hercules union employees from looking for new jobs.
Here's what's happening.
According to its contract with the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union, Hercules will give the 463 hourly employees two weeks' severance pay for their first year of service at the arsenal and one week's pay for each additional year.
Since Price has worked at the arsenal eight years, he is due nine weeks' salary - about $4,800 before taxes are taken out.
Here's the catch: hourly workers' severance checks stop when they find another job.
According to the union agreement, severance is paid weekly only after the laid-off worker presents Hercules with an unemployment pay stub from the Virginia Employment Commission.
Put simply, no unemployment check, no severance pay.
"It's bad enough to get laid off," Price said. "But now they are going to penalize me if I get a new job. It's just a slap in the face."
It's not the same for the 267 salaried workers who will lose their jobs.
Those employees will be paid a lump-sum severance package shortly after their last day of work, said Nicole Kinser, public affairs officer for the arsenal.
About a dozen arsenal workers have called the newspaper to say that's a double standard they believe is unfair.
"I don't know why in the world the union would ever agree to such a deal," Price said.
Ken Thompson, president of the union, offered no explanations, saying only that he was negotiating with Hercules to change the method of payment to a lump sum.
If no change is made and the current severance plan stands, then Price and many of his co-workers face a dilemma.
They can look for work and lose their severance money if they find a job. Or they remain jobless and live off unemployment and severance payments most of 1993.
Price, who graduated from high school in 1958 and completed New River Community College's Maintenance Apprentice Program in 1970, figures he'll choose the latter without feeling an ounce of guilt.
"I want to work, but why should I, when I can sit at home and draw my regular payday," he said. "If we could just get the severance money up front then I wouldn't have to stay on unemployment."
Price, who lives with his wife, Sarah, in a trailer in the rural Childress section of Montgomery County, plans to spend his time rebuilding a 1977 Harley-Davidson motorcycle, strumming his bass guitar and singing gospel music.
But he knows he'll eventually have to find a job.
Bills will still have to be paid. Sarah Price's job as a custodian at Auburn High School won't support the couple. Their two sons are grown and on their own.
J.R. Schrader, employment supervisor for the New River Valley Agency on Aging, said entering the job market over age 50 is tough.
"They say there is no such thing as age discrimination and there's not supposed to be; but there is, you can feel it," he said.
And despite his wealth of experience, Price knows he probably won't be exempt from age bias.
"Who's going to hire me?" he asked. "Who's going to invest their money in me when I can only work for a limited number of years?"
Many of Price's co-workers losing their jobs will take advantage of a federal trade program available to help retrain laid-off workers.
But Price feels that two years of training - the length of most programs - would be more hindrance than help to someone his age.
"By the time I got out of school I'd be two years older," he said. "It's going to be harder to find a job at 54 than 52."
Despite his age, Price feels certain he will eventually find a job. Even if it means leaving the New River Valley where he's lived for more than 25 years.
"I don't want to leave the area, but you do what you got to do," he said.