Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 11, 1994 TAG: 9402140329
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
"That's going to be the hard part. Leaving each other," said Clara Kinsley, who's spent the better part of her adult life - about 45 years - as a Tech laundry worker.
Sadie Allen, the senior employee in both age and service, could only sha\ke her head. She's worked all but 20 of her 71 years at the laundry.
Kathleen Epperly has more than 35 years of service, as does Juanita "Tootsie" Cumbee. Geneva Kipps has been there about 40 years. Her son Dean has worked there 15.
"It's unfair," Cumbee said. "After all these years we've put in here and all the work we've done."
The dozen members of the extended family - the remnants of a work force that used to number in the hundreds - are understandably disappointed and dejected over the university's decision to turn their building over to academic use as a money-saving measure. The university, trying to streamline in an effort to offset tighter state budgets, estimates the move will save up to $330,000 a year in operating costs and off-campus leasing fees.
The Virginia Power Electronics Center, which now leases off-campus space, will occupy the 13,000-square-foot facility in mid-1995, after renovations estimated at $1 million.
The university official who oversees the laundry operation, Richard Alvarez, said the laundry was not essential to the university's core mission. The decision to close it came after a year-long study.
Prospects of new campus jobs for the veteran employees, some already past retirement age, are dim. And because the full-time laundry workers were moved onto the Virginia State Retirement System about five years ago, they will get retirement credit only for that time.
The university has said it will try to place the workers in new jobs, but concedes that layoffs are possible.
"The older people will go home," predicted Maynard Quesenberry, who manages both the laundry and the tailor shop - which will remain open. "I believe it's a bad decision." He said he was not consulted by university administrators.
Quesenberry said he's lost a lot of sleep over what's ahead for his workers, who, he suggests, are easy targets because they're at the bottom of the university hierarchy. "Their whole life has been in this laundry," he said. "The little people don't have a voice."
Cumbee agrees with her boss, who she considers one of the best parts of the job. "We might be the little people, but the little people run the world," she said to her colleagues' nods of approval.
Tech's laundry washes, dries and presses more than a million pounds of laundry a year, about 75 percent of it campus items like table linens and custodial uniforms, he said. That work will go off-campus after July 1.
The facility also keeps uniforms for many of the campus' 400 or so members of the Corps of Cadets in inspection-ready condition, and does wash for the Natural Bridge Juvenile Home and for other members of the university community. Cadets and occasional users pay rates comparable to local commercial laundries.
"We're out of luck," said junior cadet Bob Shelton, who had stopped by to pick up his freshly pressed uniforms Thursday afternoon. He said he'd probably start using a commercial laundry instead.
"They won't get as good a job off campus," Epperly said.
Even the more junior employees face uncertain futures. Linda Cook has been there 12 years. Gordon Jones, the laundry's mechanic, has been there almost 22.
The older workers have mostly happy recollections of their times at the laundry. Kipps said she remembers getting a half-day off on a Saturday to get married 38 years ago. She reported to work Monday morning as usual.
Things were so busy at one point that workers used to return in the evenings to try to stay ahead of the clothes, uniforms, dining hall linens and other items.
The laundry used to do a thousand shirts a day. "And we had a good time doing it," said Epperly.
Now, this family of workers and friends is looking toward an uncertain future.
"What do you do after you've worked here all these years?" Allen asked.
by CNB