Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Workers fear '90 plant closing foreshadows more job flights Date: Sun, 1 Nov 92 20:06:09 EST Message-ID: \SE A;MONEY \HD Workers fear '90 plant closing foreshadows more job flights \BY Anne Veigle \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES Two years ago, a single announcement sent a shock wave through the tranquil little town of Radford, Va., a five-hour drive from Washington, D.C. American Telephone & Telegraph said it was closing a manufacturing plant and laying off nearly 1,000 workers. The plant was one of the town's largest employers and had set up shop a decade before, pledging long-term fidelity to the town of 15,000, according to some of the plant's workers.p AT&T's announcement carried a bitter twist for some employees: 10 percent of the jobs were moving to Mexico where wages were cheaper. This took place two years before the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement, which was announced in August. But many union workers think the trade pact will accelerate transfers of jobs to Mexico and the plant closing has come to symbolize to the Radford workers what might happen if Congress approves NAFTA. "Mexico was seen as one of main reason we lost our jobs," said Bill Burton, president of the local office of the Communication Workers of America in Radford. "There's a fear that a wave of such plant movings will result if the agreement is passed by Congress." To bolster their arguments of the impending perils of the trade pact, labor groups point to the highly publicized announcement by New York typewriter manufacturer Smith Corona's decision in July to move its plant to Mexico, terminating nearly 1,000 jobs. "America's working people are in trouble," said Ron Carey, president of the Teamsters Union, in a September speech in California. The union is part of a broad-based labor coalition opposed to the free-trade pact. Over the past two months, the group has led a caravan of trucks and mobile homes across the country in an anti-NAFTA campaign it is calling the "Economic Earthquake Express." They hope to persuade members of Congress to vote against the deal unless a displaced worker benefits bill is included. Such legislation would pay for training programs for workers who lose their jobs as a result of the trade agreement, to enable them to find new employment. The Bush administration has proposed a worker displacement bill and Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton has vowed - if he wins - to hinge his approval of NAFTA to worker benefits legislation. But in Radford, a worker retraining program has had dubious results, Mr. Burton said. The union had worked out a generous severance package with AT&T that provided money for more than a year's worth of retraining at local universities for laid-off workers, he said. The company also paid for a counseling program for the workers, which helped the workers deal with the trauma. "There was a lot of blame placing on AT&T as a whole, then it was George Bush," said Steve Watson, the psychologist whom AT&T hired to work with the employees. "Some complained 'our jobs are going to Mexico and the company has sold us out,' while others sympathized with the company's need to save money." Many employees were hopeful that new opportunities might emerge from the crisis, and they looked forward to getting new jobs, he said. Today, those hopes are dimming, said Mr. Burton, who is coordinator for the Employee Resource Center, which AT&T set up to help workers deal with the transition. "The economy here is still real slow," Mr. Burton said. "Most of our people who went back to school are finished. People are shocked. Very few are having luck finding jobs so far, yet this area has normally been a place where you could find a job." The plant closing has sprinkled hardship throughout the town, he said. "Little stores were the first ones hurt, then a big department store closed and a Family Dollar closed," he said. "You just see a lot of vacant storefronts and a lot of 'For Sale' signs." But the plant closing is not responsible for all the economic hardship Radford is facing, said Thomas G. Johnson, professor of agriculture economics at nearby Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va. "It's hard to disentangle the plant closing from the recession," he said. "This has been a very strong and growing economy and now it is doing very poorly." At the time of the AT&T layoff, Mr. Johnson estimated that the four-county area surrounding Radford would lose an estimated $37 million in income, $25 million in retail sales, $40 million in real property and $17 million in personal property taxes. While a devastating blow, he said, the figures represented less than 1 percent of the economic base of the region. "AT&T was a major employer, and it meant a loss of a lot of good jobs," he said. "But we've had two other sources of job losses: cutbacks at VPI and the downsizing of the Radford Army Ammunition plant, right from the time AT&T was laying off people." Mr. Johnson thinks it's a mistake to blame the plant closing for the town's problems, nor does he think a free-trade pact will lead to a rash of similar such corporate moves. "I know people are convinced that the NAFTA will lead to loss of jobs, but my opinion is that kind of thing will happen with or without a trade agreement. Overall, in the longer term, we don't have anything to fear." Meanwhile, Mr. Burton's job ends in January and he will face the same tight job market as the people he has tried to help for the past two years. "I was born and raised here. I don't care to go to other places, but I guess the economics of the next couple of months will determine that for me." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM