Photo: M.K. McFarland
Annetta Richards and Marlene Knight repair the seams on an emergency exit slide. All employees at the Goodrich plant
will be out of work by the end of the month.
http://sundaygazettemail.com/
Sunday, Sep. 8, 2002
The Bitter End
Sept. 11 helped close Spencer plant
By Scott Finn
SPENCER â For many Americans, the attacks
of Sept. 11 stole their sense of security. For
Goodrich employees in Spencer, the terrorists
also destroyed their jobs.
A year ago, 172 people made and delivered the
rubber safety slides for airplanes. Today, only
54 are left. Most will be laid off by the end of
this week, the rest lose their jobs at the end of
the month.
"We will be here until the bitter end. These are
our people," said Shirley Dawson, a human
resource manager for Goodrich who's worked
there for 28 years.
Some of the plant's production is being shifted
to a sister plant in Phoenix. The Spencer
employees could have transferred there. Only
three have.
The production jobs pay $9 to $10 per hour â
the highest pay in the area for someone without
a college diploma, Dawson said. The average
worker at the plant is a 45-year-old female that's
worked there a long time.
"A lot of people started in high school and
stayed," she said.
Photo: M.K. McFarland
Lynda Milliron of Big Springs (left) and Annetta Richards of Rosedale worked
together at the plant more than 20 years, often at the same table. They assemble
the rubber pieces of the slide by hand.
Dawson said some employees are training to
become nurses or office workers. One wants to
repair heating and air conditioning units. A
handful found jobs at a window manufacturing
plant.
Only 23 employees were able to retire. The rest
are struggling to find jobs in an area of the state
notorious for its high unemployment rates.
"There's not a lot of call for rubber fabrication
in West Virginia," Dawson said.
Company officials blamed the terrorist attacks
for the plant closure. The layoffs were
announced Oct. 26, just six weeks after Sept.
11.
Workers aren't so sure that the terrorist attacks
were to blame. Company officials talked about
moving production to India or Mexico several
months before the attacks, said John Simers of
Mt. Zion, president of the local union that
represents plant workers.
"Sept. 11 had some to do with it," Simers said.
"I think it will move to Mexico, myself."
Annetta Richards of Rosedale and Lynda
Milliron of Big Springs worked together at the
plant more than 20 years, often at the same
table. They assemble the rubber pieces of the
slide by hand.
"I think this was in the works for years,"
Richards said. "Sept. 11 was a good excuse."
She said it can take up to six months for a new
trainee to learn the job, "and they don't always
make it," she said.
Workers have to read blueprints and meet
stringent Federal Aviation Administration
standards â while working faster and more
efficiently all the time.
"It really is a skills job. You have to be good
with your hands," she said.
Richards and Milliron tear up when they talk
about their last days at the plant. They said they
can't imagine working anywhere else.
They take up money when a co-worker
becomes sick, they send flowers when a
co-worker's loved one dies, they celebrate
birthdays in the plant's cafeteria.
"We had a lot of good friends here. We've been
together 20 years. We watched each other's kids
grow up," Milliron said.
"We spend more time with each other than our
own families."
Photo: M.K. McFarland
Betty Huffman, employee of more than 12 years, works alone on a slide.
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