ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, March 13, 1997               TAG: 9703140009
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: B-8  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON THE ROANOKE TIMES


SHE'S NOT HURTING MUCH, BUT OTHERS ARE THE LAYOFFS COME AS JOBLESS RATES ARE LOW AND NEW COMPANIES ARE HIRING

AMP Inc. will shut its Roanoke facilities Friday, casting off about 450 workers.

The work-experience section of Jackie Ondell's resume would read like this: 7-Eleven cashier. Yarn maker. Housekeeper. Janitor. Electronics assembler.

Then a footnote: Laid off, March 1997.

She was bowling before her work shift about two weeks ago. Did you hear? asked a co-worker at the AMP Inc. electronics plant in Roanoke County. The factory was shutting down, the co-worker said. Ondell received her official notice a few days later.

In one sense, she is a statistic. Ten companies in the Roanoke Valley and three in the New River Valley have announced layoffs of more than 1,500 people since July 1. In its shutdown, which becomes official Friday, AMP is casting off 450 employees, the most of any of the 13 companies. Fifty of 90 AMP workers who were offered transfers to plants elsewhere accepted them, said company spokeswoman Thea Hocker.

Fortunately, the layoffs come at a time of low unemployment rates and announcements of new jobs from companies moving to the area or local companies that plan to expand.

Ondell already has interviewed twice for a production job at a book plant under construction in Roanoke County by R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. and started that company's mandatory pre-employment classes at Virginia Western Community College. She expects to know within a month if she will be hired.

If turned down, she will take advantage of a different kind of opportunity related to the economic climate: taxpayer-funded school for workers like her who lose their jobs as a result of foreign competition. She wants to study computers.

Ondell said she knows of co-workers for whom the plant closing blows a hole in their budgets. A big hole. "This layoff really didn't hurt me," she said one morning over coffee at a restaurant.

She and her husband, Bill, can withstand the loss of her $10-an-hour job and its benefits, even if weeks or months pass before she finds other work.

They are financially secure, she said. They own a duplex that brings in rent that pays the mortgage. Her 1990 Corsica is paid for. She doesn't have credit card debt. He is a pressman for The Roanoke Times, and their four children are grown.

Still, Ondell regrets leaving AMP, where for about 3 1/2 years she made, tested and inspected computer-cord plugs. She was always moving her hands, and company training had familiarized her with production work. The plant was comfortable, music played from speakers and "it was good money," she said.

Another cushion from the layoff's impact is a slew of pursuits outside of work - pursuits for which she now has more time. A live-in granddaughter is one. She goes to hockey games. And in her basement are her pets - tanks of fish and five caged ferrets.

Still, one of Ondell's most vivid memories from the plant's final days is of a woman, a fellow night-shift worker, losing composure at a meeting at which executives gave the closing announcement to third-shift employees.

"She was asking, 'what are we supposed to do? You all knew about this before.' She broke down crying. She had to leave the room," Ondell said.

Other people "had just bought houses, just bought cars," Ondell said. "Other people told me they were filing bankruptcy."


LENGTH: Medium:   69 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  JANEL RHODA THE ROANOKE TIMES. Jackie Ondell saw one 

co-worker lose her composure at the announcement and leave the room

crying. Others say they'll file bankruptcy. KEYWORDS: JOBCHEK

by CNB