Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 15, 1994 TAG: 9412150037
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
NAFTA, which took effect Jan. 1, is generally seen as a way to open new markets in Mexico and Canada to U.S. companies. But dropping of protective trade barriers among the three nations also threatens jobs, especially in U.S. industries whose Mexican competitors pay much lower wages.
The assistance available to workers whose jobs have been lost as a result of NAFTA covers such areas as job training, relocation and extended unemployment benefits, Judy Griffith, a counselor for the Virginia Employment Commission, explained at a seminar on NAFTA Wednesday at Virginia Western Community College.
Six businesses have asked for assistance for their workers since the program began, she said. Innotech in Roanoke was the first.
Anne Landey, human resources manager for Innotech, said the VEC made the company aware of its eligibility for the program after some of its former workers began applying for unemployment benefits earlier this year.
Landey said Innotech had negotiated a contract with a Mexican company to prepare the surface of the plastic lens materials used in the company's Excalibur product, a machine for making multifocal contact lenses in optometrists' offices. Until the Tijuana company could get its operation under way, however, Innotech set up a temporary lens preparation facility in Roanoke, employing 10 people, she said.
When the Mexican company was ready to start fulfilling its contract with Innotech in March, the Roanoke operation was shut down and the employees laid off.
Landey said she was not sure at first that the workers would be eligible for the benefits because the jobs were not lost due to Mexican competition.
Most of the laid-off workers found new jobs, she said. She was aware of only one who took the job training offered under the NAFTA program.
by CNB