ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 2, 1996 TAG: 9607020074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER AND JOANNE POINDEXTER STAFF WRITERS
NOTE: Above
AFTER RUBATEX said it would relocate, cutting nearly 300 jobs in the process, town residents worry that the move will start a gradual decline in Bedford's economy.
Like a lot of union workers at Rubatex, Dennis Phillips took a chance Sunday.
Gambling that Rubatex's threat to lay off one-third of its Bedford workers was only a threat, he voted against the company's final contract offer.
Unfortunately for him, he lost. After the union voted down the contract, Rubatex said nearly 300 layoffs are imminent, pending the company's relocation of part of the Bedford plant to another Rubatex facility in Colt, Ark.
Now Phillips, who has worked at the plant for 10 years and makes $11.77 an hour, is waiting to see if one of the jobs cut will be his. In the meantime, the 30-year-old father of two says he'll be looking for a job in construction.
Another union worker, who's 32 and also a father, is in the same boat. He's worked for the company eight years, but he doesn't think he'll have enough seniority to make the cut when the layoffs come.
He's going to college at night and applying for scholarships. He hopes he'll do better in the job market than his co-workers, most of whom have a high school diploma or a general equivalency diploma, and some of whom have never graduated from high school. Rubatex, he said, "is the only thing they know how to do."
However, if his scholarship doesn't come through, then "I might work for a grocery store again. I did that when I was young, bagging groceries," said the worker, who makes $11.50 an hour. Or he might try the recently announced Frito Lay factory in Lynchburg, where many other Rubatex employees will be looking for jobs, too.
Even though he's with the union, the worker, who asked not to be named, said he didn't vote Sunday. He believes the company planned to move operations out of Bedford no matter how the union voted.
"You can look at the building from the outside and see that it's old, the equipment's old and dilapidated," he said. "I don't think they're staying here."
People in the community were saying much the same thing Monday, as Rubatex's layoff announcement was being discussed in shops, restaurants and offices around Bedford.
"It's definitely Topic One," said Neal Carwile, a barber at Center Street Barber Shop. "Chances are now the whole town's going to go downhill."
Amathea Martin, a legal secretary in Bedford, said, "It seems to me [the workers] are cutting off their nose to spite their face." Like many, she said, she is afraid that the 300 layoffs are just "the beginning of a gradual decline."
Jack Parker, a vegetable seller at the Bedford Farmer's Market, said his customers were talking a lot about Rubatex on Monday. As he loaded steel washtubs full of onions and tomatoes onto his truck, he said, "If they lay off 300, that's going to be rough. I feel like they're going to get rid of all [the workers] if they don't take" what the company offers.
While city resident Phyllis Bell was waiting in line at the Blue Ridge Cafe in Bedford Monday afternoon, she also questioned why the union would vote against the contract when they knew that doing so would mean the loss of jobs.
"Where else are you going to be able to find a job in Bedford that pays that kind of money?" Bell asked. "They're crazy. I don't understand it."
She, too, thinks Rubatex could pull out of Bedford entirely; if it does, she said, "It will destroy this town." Real-estate and personal property taxes would probably go up, not to mention electricity, which is provided by the city, she said.
Despite the widespread opinion of residents, Rubatex would have preferred to stay in Bedford, according to Jery Kirschke, company spokesman and vice president of human resources.
"In speaking on behalf of the Rubatex management group, I am truly sorry it has come to this conclusion," Kirschke said. Rubatex had a "total commitment" to improving Bedford, he added, noting that Rubatex President Frank Roland received approval earlier this year from the company's parent company for $6 million in renovations for the Bedford plant.
The plant was built in 1924 and has been operated by Rubatex since 1935. It produces foam rubber for a variety of goods such as shoes, hoses and wet suits.
The lost 287 jobs represent about 6 percent of Bedford's total job supply of 4,650, according to Virginia Employment Commission figures as of Sept. 30. But the average wage of $11.50 at Rubatex, a figure reported by some employees, is 17 percent higher than the city's average wage of $9.85, the VEC data show.
``There has been a real comfort level with Rubatex here so long. ... Everybody knows someone who works there. Now a friend or relative may be out of a job," said Bedford Mayor Mike Shelton, who called the announcement from Rubatex "sobering and shocking." Shelton said the city would survive despite the layoffs and loss of tax revenue. Rubatex is the city's largest employer, taxpayer and electrical consumer. Its annual tax contribution to Bedford is about $250,000.
Shelton and others said it's too early to tell what the exact financial impact of the decision will be on the city, but they said the city will be able to take the shock because it has an aggressive industrial development policy.
John Boardman, CEO of Sam Moore Furniture, which employs about 320 workers in Bedford, called the Rubatex layoffs "a tragedy," but he also pointed to Bedford's diversified industrial base, which includes his factory, Bedford Weaving, Piedmont Label, Bunker Hill Foods, and Frank Chervan Furniture.
"It won't be as big a hit as if we were a one-industry town," Boardman said. "The other industries all seem to be growing, and, over a reasonable period of time, will be able to absorb [the loss].
"It'll be a slow process, but I think Bedford is a resilient city with a good future, and it's going to be tough, but we'll be able to overcome this adversity."
Staff writer Jeff Sturgeon contributed to this story.
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