Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 22, 1995 TAG: 9502220056
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
When the Fieldcrest Cannon Inc. plant in Fieldale becomes smoke-free, an estimated 525 smoking employees will be unable to light up, even outdoors. Smokeless tobacco also will be banned from the premises.
The company notified employees in a memorandum last year that its policy was ``an effort to recognize the health hazards caused by the use of tobacco.'' But the union president said the ban raises questions of freedom, as well as health.
``I think it's more about taking rights away,'' said Jerry Hairston, president of Local 1708 of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers. ``Why all of a sudden are they going to be so concerned about our health?''
Hairston said the union argued unsuccessfully for employees to be allowed to smoke outdoors.
Company officials have not been available to comment on the policy since the union released plans Friday for the protest.
The rally is to begin at the union hall near the plant at 2 p.m. and is to run until 4, the union said. Hairston estimated that 60 percent of Fieldcrest employees smoke and about 10 percent use smokeless tobacco.
Smoking is allowed away from work areas in about a dozen spots on the production floor in Fieldcrest's two Fieldale mills, Hairston said. It is not clear how employees would be penalized if they continued to smoke.
Fieldcrest is following the lead of many employers in banning smoking, according to the American Lung Association's Southwest Virginia office in Roanoke.
``It's the trend now, because people are becoming so much more aware of the hazards of second-hand smoke,'' said Toni Ferguson, the association's marketing development director.
by CNB