SOMETHING'S MISSING IN THIS NEW JOB

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

DATE: SUNDAY, January 24, 1993                   TAG: 9301260207
SECTION: ECONOMY                    PAGE: EC-20   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
SOMETHING'S MISSING IN THIS NEW JOB
Tim Wilson considers himself lucky to have found a job immediately after Grumman Emergency Products Inc. closed its Roanoke fire engine factory last September.
And Wilson said he's pleased with his new job at the M&W Fire Apparatus Co. in Stewartsville, but he ran into a big insurance problem.
The new company has just eight workers, which means it's been unable to get a group insurance policy because some of them have problems with diabetes and high blood pressure. A few are covered by a spouse's insurance but others, like Wilson, 35, have no insurance.
"Insurance creeps up on you," he said. He and his wife, Vicki, and their two children fortunately have had no big medical expenses, he said, "but we're worried as they grow older." Too, Wilson has high blood pressure himself.
Doug Widener, one of the founders of the company, said insurance firms "won't even tell you why they turned you down."
Wilson and the other seven M&W employees all came from Grumman. "A lot of my friends are not working and a lot come by here looking for jobs," he said. One former Grumman man found a welding job with a Roanoke contractor but he was laid off there, his second layoff in a year, Wilson said.
The former Grumman workers lived through much uncertainty during the company's long shutdown period and they have had to adjust from Grumman's paid insurance and other benefits. Wilson, a Lord Botetourt High School graduate who was there when Grumman bought the Roanoke fire equipment company, has installed electrical systems, lights and sirens on engines for 17 1/2 years.
"Everything was good. They were good to me," he said.
The new company has four fire engines in its crowded shop and a fifth is in a paint shop. As one of three spinoff companies from the Grumman fire engine market, M&W builds bodies and does major refurbishing work.
The Wilsons live at Daleville, less than a half-hour drive from his job. Vicki does baby-sitting at home.
The family "tried to get things caught up and paid off . . . We tried to stay away from charge cards." The family relied on her bank Christmas Club for their Christmas shopping.
When he looks at the national economy, he's hoping "that Clinton will improve it. Something needs to be done."
Wilson likes his work. "It's closer. We're like a family. I've worked side by side with them for a long time."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB