Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 4, 1993 TAG: 9308040540
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Several senior executives - some with ties to prominent families and Roanoke Valley leaders - have been fired in recent weeks, victims of "repositioning" and "consolidation" within the Charlotte, N.C.-based company's Virginia region.
Current and former executives of Dominion Bankshares Corp. - acquired by First Union last March - say informal news of the terminations has renewed fear and anxiety among employees who survived December's job cuts and considered themselves safe.
"People are calling these `drive-by shootings,' " said one employee who insisted on anonymity. "Consequently, people are just quaking in their shoes."
The casualties - so far, fewer than 10 - include two longtime Dominion executives responsible for the bank's retail operations in the Roanoke Valley; three from the bank's special assets area, including Anne Dunlap, daughter of retired Norfolk & Western Railway Co. President Richard Dunlap; Charles McGuire, a vice president and head of private banking; and Martha Shifflett, a senior vice president for credit administration and one of the Roanoke bank's highest-ranking women.
Job cutbacks are occurring elsewhere in the Virginia-Maryland-Washington market, especially in Northern Virginia, Benjamin Jenkins, president and chief operating officer of First Union National Bank of Virginia, said Tuesday. Indeed, planned reorganizations and reappraisals could lead to more firings, as senior officials work to combine Dominion and three other recently acquired banks with First Union.
"The reaction I've gotten from everybody is, `Why are you losing your job now? They've made all their cuts,' " Dunlap said, echoing the questions voiced by others. "It's corporate America and I was a number. I sincerely have no hard feelings at all. I don't feel bad about the company. It's business."
In separate interviews, Shifflett and McGuire confirmed they had been fired last month. Shifflett, named in January by First Union to head credit administration for Roanoke and parts west, said she was "surprised" by her termination. But she and McGuire declined to comment further, except to describe their jobs at the bank.
Several other executives who have been released in recent weeks - and their firings confirmed by company officials - are not being identified by name because they could not be reached.
The firings, effective immediately in most cases, have prompted suggestions that First Union executives are politically tone-deaf - that is, less interested in fostering good relations with their new community and its customers than in making decisions designed to put First Union officials in key positions.
Senior managers also are being criticized by some company employees for not explaining the targeted firings and reorganizations to an increasingly nervous work force, which in recent months has been adjusting to a new, leaner regime focused on productivity, cost-containment and customer service.
Critics also point to the age and tenure of the fired employees - some of them 40 or older with more than 15 years of service - suggesting they were eliminated because of their generally higher salaries and more costly pension obligations.
In an hour-long interview, three senior First Union executives denied allegations of insensitivity, saying the reductions reflect inevitable - if painful - changes inherent in efforts to improve efficiency and find the right person for the right job.
"It's not like we've made these decisions and sat on them for a month," Jenkins said. "We just know more about our company six months into this thing than we did before. This shouldn't be a surprise.
"There's been no intent to eliminate jobs that were encumbered by certain tenured employees. We certainly take the political side into account, but the big driver is performance."
Added David Carroll, vice chairman for general banking: "What's happening is, the plan is beginning to be implemented. Categorically, expectations have increased across the board - and we feel good about it."
Increased expectations are not news to Dominion employees now working for First Union. For months, some have complained to former colleagues about the new standards, the longer hours and less time spent with the children.
"Dominion didn't change," said Byron Yost, a longtime Dominion banker who was moved from Richmond to become president of the Roanoke region. "If things were going OK, they tended to not tamper with them. They did little or no transferring of people within the franchise to enhance performance. It was a static environment."
Not so with First Union, said Jenkins and Carroll, pointing to the company's North Carolina banking operation as evidence that even the most "mature" First Union market must - and does - change with the marketplace.
If anything, it seems efficiency is the name of First Union's game. The Roanoke region has proven to be perhaps the most efficient of those inherited from Dominion.
Northern Virginia appears to be the least efficient, executives say, making it a target for additional consolidation and cutbacks.
"I believe efficiency will be a way of life for a long, long time," Jenkins said, "and we'll always be looking for ways to be more productive."
In September, in announcing the acquisition, First Union Chairman Edward Crutchfield and his Dominion counterpart Warner Dalhouse said the combined company would cut $100 million - 25 percent - of Dominion's operating expenses by the end of 1994.
"Nobody's calling Byron or David or me and saying, `How are you doing on that $100 million?' " Jenkins said. "We're doing it ourselves."
The jobs announced for elimination in December were the most obvious to incoming executives like Jenkins and Carroll. They said Dalhouse's decision to grant First Union access to Dominion before the deal was legally consummated in March enabled First Union to accelerate its takeover of the Roanoke company.
Now regional executives are fine-tuning the consolidation, leading to apparently piecemeal firings. Additional cutbacks and reorganizations are likely; the consolidation of branches throughout First Union's Virginia region, coming perhaps within two months, will account for additional job losses.
\ FEWER BRANCHES?\ First Union officials also are studying the use and profitability of Dominion\ branches. Among possible changes:\ \ May close: Franklin Street in Christiansburg; Smith Mountain Lake; 9th Street\ Southeast in Roanoke.\ \ May combine: Melrose Avenue and Peters Creek Road branches in Roanoke.\ \ May build: Branch near New River Valley Mall in Christiansburg.
by CNB