By Jim Cooper Editor
thetimesrecord.net
Fingers, some nimble and others not quite as skilled, guided material and industrial sewing machines whirred as Mustang Survival employees turned out the first unofficial products from the company's new plant in Spencer.
Seventeen workers were getting used to their new jobs Tuesday in one corner of the 28,000 square foot manufacturing floor of the former Goodrich building in the Roane Industrial Park.
"They're just practicing," Charlene Fordyce, who has 15 years of experience in the business including the past year as a trainer at the company's plant in Elizabeth, explained. "Right now, they're designing and making something for themselves."
Missy Moss of Spencer, one of the new employees, proudly displayed her creation, a stuffed turtle.
"It's our mascot because we save lives on land and in the water," she explained.
Mustang is noted as an industry leader in the production of personal flotation devices, survival suits and other lifesaving apparel for customers including the military and NASA. The U.S. Coast Guard is one of Mustang's largest customers.
Company officials announced in June their plans to expand the Wirt County operation to Spencer. Twenty employees were to be hired initially, with another 20 added each quarter for a total of 100. More jobs could be possible after that, Mustang officials have said.
Elizabeth plant manager Greg Stover said 21 people who were among the nearly 400 attending a local job fair in April were called to go to work. Four did not make it past Friday's orientation for various reasons. Fordyce, however, said she was pleased with the group she has.
"Everything has gone real smooth," she said. "They've done real good. They're working at it."
For Myrtle Badgett, the six to eight week training period she began Monday brought back old memories.
"Oh, yeah, I used to sew," the 59-year-old Arnoldsburg resident said. "It's coming back to me."
Badgett put in 15 years at the former Kellwood Company in Spencer before leaving to find work as a nursing assistant in 1997. She eventually spent time as a babysitter before being laid off by a printing company about a year before the Mustang job fair.
Badgett said she was happy Spencer was chosen for the Mustang expansion rather than an alternative site at Mineral Wells in Wood County.
"I was afraid they'd go there," she said. "I couldn't go that far."
Ed Snyder, another new employee, also had previous sewing experience in the auto upholstery business, although the tolerances required by Mustang are much more strict. The initial work in Spencer is expected to focus on making outer shells for three-layer work suits designed for extreme weather conditions.
"In the upholstery you have a lot more room for mistakes," Snyder, 60, said.
Snyder, who had also worked in the polymer industry in Ohio, was unemployed when he drove from his home in Grantsville to attend the job fair.
"This means a lot to me," he said of the new job. "This is going to be demanding, but I hope I can sew well enough to qualify and finish the (training)."
Fordyce said sewing ability would be key to the new employees' eventual success. Finding skilled sewers now that most jobs in that realm have been shipped overseas is extremely difficult, she said.
"We make things that save people's lives," she said. "They just have to be very good sewers. Right now, they have to get the feel of their machine and learn how to control it."
The expectations will become higher as the training process continues, when specific instructions such as for pieces with tolerances of one-eighth inch must be followed.
"Then we'll say, 'OK, that looks good - now do it 25 times faster,'" Fordyce said. "Once they learn to do it, they'll have to bring their speed up."
Snyder, whose morning commute begins at 5 a.m., said the Mustang paycheck would be a welcome supplement to the Social Security his wife collects.
"It'll help a lot," he said.
But while waiting for that first paycheck to come, Snyder has already formed a favorable impression of his new workplace.
"From what I can tell, this is a pretty good place with pretty good people," he said.
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