Posted on 01/29/2004 7:09:01 AM PST by Gritty
What a difference a day makes.
Jerry Vernon, 48, of Asheville, is one of the 480 workers facing unemployment in the near future following the decision to close the Steelcase plant in Fletcher.
Tuesday afternoon the parking lot at Steelcase in the Cane Creek Industrial Park was covered in snow and only a few cars were there.
Wednesday most of the snow and ice had melted and workers at the office furniture production plant were back on the job, but many were reeling from the announcement that by this time next year all 480 workers at the factory will be out of a job.
"It was kind of like a sucker punch," said Jerry Vernon, 48, of Asheville, who has worked at Steelcase for 16 years.
Vernon, a finishing room employee, said in 30 days he will know if he will be retained past June when the production of wood office furniture at the factory begins to slow down for the end of operations.
Until then, he plans to continue with the company and pursue his degree in business administration at Montreat College. He has five children, three of whom still live at home, and he does not want to cross off any of his options.
"If you quit you don't get your severance pay, so I'll be here for at least the next six months," he said as the day shift headed home at 3:30 p.m.
Steelcase, the world's largest maker of office furniture, also announced plans Tuesday to close its wood-furniture plant in New Paris, Ind. that employs 160 people and reduce its overall manufacturing space by 1 million square feet within the next six months to a year.
"Yesterday it was announced that after careful consideration Steelcase has made the painful decision to close its Fletcher, North Carolina, wood furniture manufacturing plant," Steelcase Public Relations Manager Jeanine Hill said Wednesday. "We have engaged Right Management to assist employees through this transition and will also be providing each affected employee with a severance package based on individual seniority."
That is not much comfort to Marlo Case, 22, of Hendersonville. She has worked in the finishing room for the past two months.
"There was talk when I first came here this might happen," Case said as she prepared to leave work Wednesday afternoon to pick up her child. "Everybody seemed to think it would eventually happen, just not so soon. Some people who have been here since the day this place opened just cried their eyes out when they told us Tuesday morning."
Case said she plans to go back to school for her nursing degree.
"Most people are thinking about doing the same thing because there just aren't any factory jobs available," she said.
A few miles from the factory at the Royal Steakhouse, the plant closure was the talk of the town that more than 4,100 people call home.
"To me, it would just be hard to go back to work there," said restaurant owner Dan Stanley. "You pour your life and soul into a job, whether that's flipping burgers or building cabinets, and after something like this it would be hard to walk back through the doors."
In October Stanley bought the restaurant where many Steelcase workers eat, but the shutdown still hit close to home.
He said one of his part-time employees and her boyfriend came into the restaurant early Tuesday morning just after hearing their more than 30 years of combined employment would end this year.
"They said they didn't see this coming at all, but with the closing of other industrial plants in the area this wasn't that big of a shock," Stanley said. "She will definitely pick up a few shifts here, but unless she goes full-time it may not be enough to bridge the gap until they find something else."
Steelcase workers aren't the only WNC workers feeling the economic pinch.
In August 2002 the RFS Ecusta specialty paper production plant in Pisgah Forest shut down, leaving 600 people out of work. In November of that same year, the Agfa X-ray film facility also in Transylvania County closed its doors and left 270 people without jobs. The Coats North American specialty thread factory in Rosman ceased production in September 2003 leaving 225 people unemployed.
Letch Beatty, manager of the Employment Security Commission offices for both Henderson and Transylvania counties, said no Steelcase employees have inquired about their unemployment benefits yet, but his workers are ready to help.
"When you look at that many people looking for work, there will be keen competition for manufacturing jobs," Beatty said. "Hopefully in the spring or summer there will be more of those jobs than there are now."
Fletcher Mayor Bill Miller said he was not completely surprised by the plant closing, but it will resonate within the community.
"Steelcase was a quality industry and we've known for a while they were slowing down," Miller said. "Our big concern now is those 480 people who just lost their jobs. We're talking with the Town Council and the Chamber of Commerce to find out what we can do to help them out."
Contact Rich at 694-7890 or via e-mail at jonathan.rich@hendersonvillenews.com.
Big Ole Bad Corporations...jeez they suck.
Looks like a lot more folks will be commuting to Greenville/Spartanburg.
The Camarones al Diablo were exceptionally good, though. Hayayay! Muy picoso!
Being out of work for almost two years now, I thought of opening up a little BBQ stand, and went down to the health department to see what it would take to get a permit. Sheesh, it would probably take $20,000 worth of equipment to comply. Fugagetaboutit...
Maybe it's time to go coyote.
exactly..
Go mobile.
Hit the flea markets and such.
I have considered getting one of those hot dog carts like they have in 'Nawlins.
Ummm, Lucky Dogs and Hand Grenades.
Here's the future, your very own business!
But according to our health dept., I need restrooms, hot and cold running water, a screened enclosure with a roof and fly fans, temperature-monitored refrigation. No food can be prepared on site - only in a Class A Restaurant.
Oh, and you can't sell any food containing mayonnaise.
Huh? I still don't get it. Can't you explain your statements?
The area has been discovered by the rich folks from Atlanta and Milwaukee. Lots of million $+ vacation homes were being built during the dot-com bubble. The newly rich...
It was made as a comment about the way liberals and many Americans view "corporations" as hostile enemies as opposed to a "business" that creates a profit to pay employees and to benefit the owners of the corporation.
A good place to look up the essence of my statement would be to read "Atlas Shrugged" or better yet answer the question, "Who is John Galt?"
Corporations are no better than the governments that try to control them. The officers of the company are in it for the money they can siphon from the company. Please don't give me the old tired saw about the stockholder. We used to buy stock to invest in a company not to take profit every quarter. When did the stockholder become more important than the survival of the corporation? That is what we see today. There is no longer any sense of long term invenstment regarding stockholders. They too, are in it for the short term gain. They are no longer accepting 5% growth. They now want 8 and 9 percent immediate return. At the same time the officers of the company are taking everything they can out of the company for their own short term gain.
Do I think corporations are evil? No! I think the people running them into the ground - leaving the American worker high and dry in the name of profit - are evil.
When did our society become the voracious investors that we have become? Look at what has happened. Children in high school now have to start "investing" in their future. We force ourselves at younger and younger ages to become competitors in society. They are put under the stress of knowing that soon every other face in the classroom will become his or her direct competition.
We compete at every level of society. Our neighboors are no longer our neighboors but rather, they have become direct competition in almost every way.
I think our country is on the verge of dying and greed is the engine of its destruction. It's very sad. No one stops to help anyone anymore. Why should you, you are helping your competition.
That's what "we" do... compete. At all levels, for all things. Otherwise you fall into the "utopian" fantasy of the socialist and the communist. We compete from the time we squirt out of momma till the time we assume room temperature and they stick us in the ground.
If you realize that by "helping" your neighbor you both benefit, then you cooperate. If you find that by not helping your neighbor, but by helping his competitor you do well then you do it. That's what this country is based on. The right to compete and to succeed and to fail, both which you will get the rewards or the disaster.
It's called self interest and is a basic human characteristic . You may talk all you want about pie in the sky, kumbaya, hand holding... and it's not a bad thing, but don't confuse helping each other to compete as the same thing as "non competing" to allow all to achieve an equal outcome. Doesn't work.. never has, never will.
Our capitalistic society rewards hard work, innovation and persistence of effort... All three are needed to suceed. Not just "hard work".
My pop and I got into an argument when I was in the 7th grade about a teacher and I, when I came out with the statement, "That's not fair.".... He told me to go get the Bible, the Constitution and the Almanac and find out where it says that "Life is fair." .... He said, "Life, It's not fair son, deal with it. Sometimes bad things happen to good people, that's just life. It's not fair, it's just the way things are. So either change things, deal with things or move on. Otherwise you're just gonna be left by the side of the road whining like a little baby. "
Why should I pay $2000.00 dollars per car more if I don't have to. I can use that money to pay for better school for my kids, books, tv's, shoes, housing, and anything else I want to spend my money on. I don't need you, the government, or any liberal telling me how I "should" "give back" to anybody. Do I give to charities???? By the bucketful, why? Cause it benefits me. By doing good things, it helps to put my life in perspective, provides a balance to my family and gives them an example that money isn't everything. But it also shows that you reward hard effort.
As far as Corporations, CEO's and "stockholders"..... I don't think you understand what a stockholder is.... it's a bank to lend money to the corporation and by doing so will hopefully earn more money. Now the question is, are Americans used to short term gains to satisfy themselves... yes... I'd rather hold on to a company like Amgen, Mylan or Biogen for 12-15 years rather than by an internet stock hoping for a %1000 percent lottery homerun. If you hold a stock for 10 years and it goes up 3 times in value, but does so sporadically you AVERAGE %30 per year, but if you expect it to steadilly rise %30 every year... that person is a fool and deserves to loose his money for "gambling" and not analyzing the risk v. benefit of investing. Nothing personal, just business.... that's why libs hate "money". Cause it's just not "fair" to lose money when their kind little brains just knew they should make money.
sorry for the rant.. too much coffee.
I agree with you. However, look at the way the stock market is being worked today. I get the impression that most people have invested with the long term in mind. I don't think that officers of companies look at it that way though. They are focused on the short term gain - quarter to quarter gains and they don't even look for the long term growth of the company. If they did, they would invest in capital improvements. What's going to happen when all these companies that have moved to China no longer see the quarter to quarter growth they demand now. Where is there left to go?
That's what "we" do... compete. At all levels, for all things. Otherwise you fall into the "utopian" fantasy of the socialist and the communist. We compete from the time we squirt out of momma till the time we assume room temperature and they stick us in the ground.
While that is true in a human sense, I don't think that it has ever been as deliberate as it is now. We have become a nation of individuals competing with each other.
I'd read history if I were you
During World War II did we compete with each other? During the economic growth thta followed, did we compete with each other? I disagree. I think the one thing that made America strong was the concept of "E Pluribus Unum". Out of many one. Today it't just the opposite. Out of one - many. By that I mean we have lost the sense of oneness as a country. We are now millions of individuals competing for the same things. I don't think it was ever this bad.
I don't know what to do about it. I don't see competition as a bad thing per se. But, competition for the purpose of destroying every one else will do just that - destroy America. I have begun to look at things a little different now that I have 16 month old son. I truly fear for the future of this country and, by extension, his future.
You and I agree on most things, its the others that will carry this to the ultimate conclusion that frighten me.
capital and money follows the most favorable rate of return. If people try to legislate or "force" a specified growth rate then thier plans are like those of the communist "five year plans". Capitalism is the most human of organizations in that it is unorganized and unpredictable just like humans. Think about comparing the business climate and area of Hong Kong vs. South Central LA. Both are over populated , dirty, with few natural resources... but very different in per capita income. Who could have predicted... Cabbage Patch dolls, Pokemon cards, VHS over Beta tape, DVD players.... you never know what the future holds other than change and the ability to deal with the change by being adaptive.
By the way ... we did compete with each other during WW II . There were crooks back then, back stabbers, cowards and heroes.... all mixed together.... we also had polio, small pox, alcoholism... all these things are part of the human condition.
Now that your a father you just notice things are kinda screwed up... that's why you've really got to read some magazines and newspapers from 30's-60's... you'd be suprised..
even the magazines like Life that are written during post WWII Europe show a pretty messy picture. Life is always gonna be messy.... that's what makes it interesting.
as far as worrying about your kid's "future" Teach your kid to do addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, learn to read and understand a manual and assemble something, work hard, play by the rules, defend her/him self, use a firearm, that respect is earned not given, and believe in God... cause when all else fails (and it will) know that there is something greater than yourself to live for. ... by the way we're all going to die, nobody gets out of this alive... so enjoy life and worry about the things you can affect otherwise you'll go crazy.
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