THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 23, 1995 TAG: 9502230285
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
It's amazing how much 30 minutes - 1,800 ticks of the clock - can change the Peninsula. Next month, hourly workers at Newport News Shipbuilding will begin taking 30-minute unpaid lunch breaks, and in return, the yard will let them out a half-hour earlier.
That means that the end-of-the-day whistle will blow at 3:30 p.m. rather than 4 for most workers, letting up to 16,000 workers out of the yard and into the cars, vans and buses that take them home a half-hour earlier.
It could determine whether Nick's Busy Bee restaurant continues to thrive or curls up and dies.
It could make it impossible for Pentran to please two of its largest groups of customers - Hampton schoolchildren and shipyard workers.
It could mean Newport News elementary school pupils won't get home until slightly later than they do now because they could be stuck in traffic.
And it could shorten the hours that city crews can work to repair and construct local roads.
But one thing is certain: It will change the ebb and flow of traffic in downtown Newport News and across the rest of the Peninsula.
On Feb. 7, the United Steelworkers of America Local 8888 agreed to a new four-year pact that included a wage freeze and fewer holidays and vacation days in return for three bonuses and a shorter day.
Yard spokesman Mike Hatfield said the hour change, which won't cut the number of hours employees work daily, in no way saves the company money or increases productivity. It was included in the contract to allow workers to go home earlier. Union President Thomas Crudup said members were pleased with the change.
``We had asked for it years ago,'' Crudup said. Yard management has not yet decided whether salaried workers will join blue-collar workers in taking a shorter break and leaving earlier, Hatfield said. ``We're considering that as well,'' Hatfield said. ``Some people are saying that would make sense.''
But not everyone who relies on the shipyard for a paycheck thinks the change is such a good idea.
Take, for example, Chung James, co-owner of Nick's Busy Bee restaurant at 3614 Washington Ave.
``A lot of people are saying they'll probably bring their own lunch instead of going out for lunch,'' James said. Since her small take-out restaurant relies almost solely on shipyard workers, those words could sound its death knell.
``If it takes them 15 minutes to walk over here and 15 minutes to walk back, they're not going to have time to eat,'' James said, adding that other merchants are also worried.
For Pentran, the change provides a scheduling headache that could leave yard workers waiting for the bus until 4 p.m. or 4:15 p.m., the same time they catch their ride now, said Executive Director Michael Townes.
``It's going to be somewhat difficult for us to adjust to it,'' Townes said.
That's because almost all of the more than 30 buses that serve shipyard traffic first have to take Hampton high school and middle-school students home, as they have since the 1950s. by CNB