THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 23, 1995 TAG: 9509230263
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Robert Woten has cleaned toilets and swept floors at Newport News Shipbuilding most of his working life, but Friday the 52-year-old was laid off from his $11.73 an hour job.
Come Monday, Woten will be replaced by a contract worker making about $6 an hour - with fewer benefits.
``I've been working this job 20 years,'' Woten said. ``I don't know what I'm going to do. It's unfair. The work's still there.''
Shipyard workers rallied Friday in front of the shipyard's corporate office to support Woten and other laid-off janitors and to protest the shipyard's turn to contract workers as way to reduce its labor costs.
The crowd swelled to nearly 200 when the shift changed at 3:30 p.m. Carrying signs reading ``Justice for Janitors'' and ``World Class Shipyard, Second Class Treatment'' and wearing black armbands, the workers chanted ``Hey, hey, what do you say? Contract workers got to go.''
Friday marked the last day for 74 janitors who are being replaced by workers from a company the shipyard hired to do their work.
``In all probability those people will never return to the shipyard because their jobs were given away,'' said Judith Boyd, sub-district director of the United Steelworkers of America.
Steelworkers Local 8888 represent about 12,000 hourly workers at the shipyard. The local is fighting the layoffs and shipyard's use of out-sourcing through the arbitration process, Boyd said.
``Downsizing is not really the issue here,'' Boyd said. ``Our problem is the company's approach to reducing costs.''
Only a small percentage of the shipyard's work is out-sourced, said spokesman Tom Olds. There are several hundred contract laborers in the yard, including engineers in the computer center and production workers, he said.
In addition to the janitors, the yard recently hired a company to provide some of its security guards.
``Controlling costs is of paramount importance to us,'' Olds said. ``Continued out-sourcing or contracting outside services remains an option. We're looking at every job function in the shipyard, salaried and hourly.''
The union is protesting the lay off of the janitors on the grounds that the shipyard didn't have the right to replace them, said Thomas Crudup, the local president.
``They only have the right to lay off when there's no work,'' Crudup said. ``There's work here. The janitors have a job. That job still has to be done. There was no reason to let them go.''
The union will make its case before an arbitration panel Oct. 27.
``We feel if the company is successful here, they'll move on to other areas,'' said Ricky Pike, the janitors' union representative.
``This is bad for the whole community,'' Pike said. ``People making $5 or $6 an hour don't go out and buy a lot of shoes and cars.'' by CNB