ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 3, 1996 TAG: 9607030041
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
Rubatex Corp. has made good on its threats to eliminate 287 jobs from its rubber products plant here. On Tuesday, management posted notices that the first layoffs will begin in September, according to several workers.
The majority of those jobs will be cut Oct. 1, 1997, when the layoffs conclude, said workers on the plant's 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift. The notice, placed on plant bulletin boards, also told workers that all orders handled by the Bedford plant's extrusion division will be routed to a Rubatex plant in Colt, Ark., starting this fall.
The notice came two days after United Steelworkers Local 240 voted down Rubatex's final contract offer, spurring the company to announce it will lay off 287 of the 820 workers at the Bedford plant and move the plant's extrusion operation to Arkansas.
According to the union's labor contract, workers must be laid off in order of plant seniority, with less-senior employees leaving first.
But workers talking about the notice Tuesday said they were confused because it lists the names of some 500 employees who it said could be affected by the layoffs. Included were the plant's 283 extrusion workers, and some employees who are too senior to be endangered by the layoffs under seniority rules.
Rubatex officials could not be reached for comment about the layoff notices.
Local union President Price Parker Jr. said, ``I don't want to ... comment about it at this point because I don't want to ... foul up nothing.'' Asked if that meant that the union still hoped to persuade the company to reconsider the layoffs, he declined to comment.
Rubatex is a division of RBX Holdings Inc. of Roanoke County, which is owned by American Industrial Partners, a private investment company based in San Francisco and New York.
Rubatex makes closed-cell foam rubber used for sporting goods, pipe insulation and shoe soles.
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines KEYWORDS: JOBCHEKby CNB