ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 8, 1996 TAG: 9603080063
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
For the second time this week, a major garment maker in Martinsville has announced layoffs. Tultex Corp. on Thursday confirmed that it plans to cut 130 production jobs. The cuts were effective Tuesday, the same day Sara Lee Corp. said it would terminate 420 employees as it closes its Martinsville apparel plant.
Martinsville is heavily reliant on manufacturing jobs whose numbers have seesawed in recent years. The textile industry, the largest employer in Martinsville and surrounding Henry County, is in a slow period nationally.
But not all the textile news is bad. American Fiber Industries of Commerce, Calif., said Thursday that it would open a new factory in a leased building in Henry County this summer. The company said it plans to hire 100 people by the end of this year and 150 more within five years.
In addition, Pluma Inc. of Eden, N.C., which employs 400 in Martinsville, 300 in Rocky Mount and 350 in Eden, expects to hire a total of 200 people this spring for the plants.
Tultex is eliminating about 110 jobs by the end of this month as it shifts to production of a heavier fleecewear fabric that requires fewer people to knit, dye and finish, spokeswoman Kathy Rogers said. The switch was based on consumer preferences, she said. Temporary employees will be fired first if there are any working in affected positions, Rogers said. She could not give details on the company's temporary staffing level.
In addition, the company cast off 20 workers last month from a division that cuts small lots of fabric with equipment similar to an electric knife. Automatic cutters have been installed, and it takes fewer people to run them, Rogers said.
Though weak sales have forced cuts at other garment makers, such as Sara Lee Corp., Tultex's business is good, Rogers said. The company has about 2,100 hourly employees and about 500 salaried employees in Martinsville.
In response to dropping employment in the area's main industry, economic development officials are trying to lure more types of industry. They are tracking a rise in retail and warehouse jobs, which pay less than many of the lost manufacturing positions. Virginia Employment Commission statistics help explain the urgency to that effort; they show a decided drop in production jobs in the last three years.
Manufacturing employment in Martinsville and Henry County has fallen from 23,028 jobs in spring 1992 to 20,540 jobs last spring, a decline of 11 percent. Total employment has fallen from 40,250 jobs in spring 1992 to 39,221 jobs last spring, a drop of 3 percent.
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