DATE: Saturday, March 22, 1997              TAG: 9703220332

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   60 lines

METRO MACHINE LAYS OFF 175 THE NORFOLK-BASED SHIP REPAIR COMPANY'S THIRD BATCH OF FURLOUGHS IN AS MANY WEEKS LEAVES ABOUT 175 PRODUCTION WORKERS AFTER THE FIRM FAILED TO WIN MAJOR WORK FOR APRIL, MAY OR JUNE. BUT OFFICIALS SAY METRO STILL IS FINANCIALLY STRONG.

For the third week in a row, Metro Machine Corp. is laying off workers, leaving the once-busy shipyard with about 175 production employees.

About 175 workers were told not to return to work on Monday, said Phil Evans, business agent with the union local that represents the employees. Some worked their last shifts Friday; others are working today or Sunday.

The Norfolk-based ship repair firm's main yard across the Elizabeth River from downtown Norfolk is empty and will stay that way for at least several months for the first time since the 1970s. The guided-missile destroyer Scott left the yard last week.

Most of the employees have been working on the dock landing ship Oak Hill at the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base, but that warship sails Monday for a week-long shakedown cruise.

Metro Machine simply ran out of work. It wasn't able to win and schedule any major ship repair jobs for April, May or June.

``We are, of course, still looking for other opportunities, but they are few and far between and hotly competed for,'' Richard Goldbach, Metro Machine's president, said in an interview this week.

The company's next significant job starts at its Chester, Pa., yard in late July. That task will likely require local workers.

``We have a couple of small jobs coming up, but that doesn't amount to much,'' said Mike Fleenor, assistant shop steward with the International Brotherhood of Boiler-makers' Local 2000.

Despite the lack of work, Goldbach insists the company's financial position is strong, but hedeclined to discuss specifics.

Metro Machine notified its Norfolk employees in late January that it expected to have to lay off nearly all 600 of them. About 75 percent of its work force is represented by the Boilermakers.

Metro laid off about 50 workers two weeks ago and about 80 last week.

Don Fisher, Metro's vice president and personnel manager, confirmed this weekend's layoffs on Friday, and added that the remaining 175 production workers face layoffs soon.

The layoffs are also starting to hit Metro's nonunion work force, which includes about 130 people, Fisher said. These include clerical workers, engineers, estimators and yard foremen.

``Hopefully this will just be temporary,'' Fisher said. ``We've got a lot of good long-term employees who are being laid off and we'll probably lose some of them. That's unfortunate because our employees are our greatest asset.''

Metro Machine has received inquiries from about six companies from outside the region that are seeking skilled shipyard workers, mostly from yards along the Gulf of Mexico, Fisher said. Those jobs are being posted at departments in the yard.

Of the workers who are being laid off, Fleenor said: ``Most of them have already lined up work in other places, but some are just starting to look.'' MEMO: Staff writer Christopher Dinsmore can be phoned at 757/446-2271 or

e-mailed at (dins(AT)pilotonline.com)

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