DATE: Friday, March 7, 1997                 TAG: 9703070841

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: HAMPTON ROADS                     LENGTH:   19 lines

METRO MACHINE LAYOFFS

Metro Machine Corp. notified about 50 employees on Thursday that they won't be needed next week, company and union officials said. The effected workers are the first of up to 600 workers that could be temporarily laid off by the mid-sized Norfolk shipyard before the end of the month. Metro Machine notified its employees at the end of January that it would likely have to layoff most of them due to a lack of work. It's ``slim pickings'' between now and July, said Senior Vice President Ken Newman. ``It's not as big a cut as we expected, but I guess there's more coming,'' said Mike Fleenor, assistant chief steward for the International Bortherhood of Boilermakers, which represents Metro's hourly workers.

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