Posted on 03/27/2006 4:51:31 PM PST by hacksaw37
DANVILLE, Va. - More layoffs were announced Wednesday at Dan River Inc. as the textile manufacturer eliminated 110 jobs at its Brookneal, Va., sewing and finishing plant.
Approximately 300 workers will remain at the Brookneal facility, according to Calvin Barnhardt, Dan River’s vice president of human resources. A total of about 600 area workers will stay with the company - 300 in Danville.
Many employees leaving work at the Brookneal plant on Thursday were unaware of the layoffs. Those who did know about the cutbacks worried about losing their jobs.
“They’re just giving us bits and pieces (of what is happening),” said Edgar Brightwell, an employee in the printing department who retained his job.
While Danville’s Schoolfield complex shuts down and is “mothballed” this month and the Morven, N.C., plant closes this week, the Brookneal plant’s future is day-to-day, Barnhardt said. That facility could be sold, shut down, jointly owned by Dan River and another company, or continue running.
“We’re still having the conversations and are still trying to find out about us and the plan with that facility going forward,” Barnhardt said.
One Brookneal employee put it another way.
“Nobody knew anything until they put that paper up,” said Ricky Short, a worker in the printing department who also kept his job. He was referring to a posting on an employee bulletin board concerning the job cuts. “This is like a military operation. You’re on a need-to-know basis.”
But Barnhardt said that some contract work is coming to the plant from other companies. And the remaining Brookneal employees could be kept to help with last-minute customer demands. As Dan River manufacturing moves overseas, zero-hour production is difficult to obtain here if a product sells quickly enough to go out of stock.
“We can then supplement it with production made at Brookneal, and at the same time we’re getting orders placed and filled for overseas,” Barnhardt said.
Otherwise, most manufacturing will come from other countries like India or Pakistan as directed by the company’s new owner, India-based Gujurat Heavy Chemicals Ltd.
Concurrent with GHCL’s $93.5 million buyout of Dan River in January, other layoffs were announced at the company.
In the latest round of cutbacks, about 100 hourly and 12 salaried employees at the Brookneal were personally notified on Wednesday that their last working day would be Friday. Severance packages will be offered through the company based on pay scale and career length at Dan River. State and federal aid will be distributed through the Virginia Employment Commission, Barnhardt said.
Lynchburg’s VEC field office will handle the government aid. But when contacted Thursday afternoon, acting manager Kimberly Turner-McIvor was unaware of the layoffs. But she said that employees could visit the office and get help with insurance benefits, money for work-force training, or cash for displaced workers.
With a 3.2 percent local unemployment rate, McIvor said Lynchburg should be able to absorb the displaced workers from nearby Brookneal, which is located about 20 miles southeast of the Hill City. In contrast, Danville’s unemployment rate is nearly 11 percent, one of the highest nationwide for a metropolitan area.
Lynchburg News & Advance Bethany Fuller staff writer contributed to this report.
Besides, most of the textile plants that remain in the south (which moved their from New England, btw) hire illegal aliens, the natives having found better jobs.
No tears for New England then. No tears for Danville now.
And before New England, the Midlands of Great Britain. Textile jobs move wherever there's near-slave labor to be had.
It's...an historical fact.
Oh yeah, the company needs to make less profit for all the evil shareholders and officers.
the market determines where the jobs go.... if 200 million people have the brainpower to work in a textile mill... that skill isn't very rare and will be paid out what it can from the market....If 200 million people could do neurosurgery then the price of that would go down as well......
That's why in general, wages reflect what the society will pay up to a point, and reflect the "value" of the service provided or skill's scarcity in society.
Textiles are going to Communist China, which is slave labor. In the old days, the work was performed by individuals on the lowest rung of the socioeconomic ladder, whether in England, New England, or my own state. In the latter cases, what I refer to as "slave labor" could also be called "most easily exploited labor."
My hero Winston Churchill made me aware of social strata when he said "Communism is man exploiting man while capitalism is man exploiting man."
sorry, communism and capitalism have one huge difference. In capitalism you chose to be exploited by "the man" or you can walk away and either make your own job or get another with skills that are in need by society
.... in communism your choice is plombo or whatever plata they give you...lead (bullet) or silver (small pay)
big difference.
A metallic explanation of differences...that's very clever. However, it doesn't change the fact that corporate suits (who I have worked with, unlike most people, so I know) are some of the most evil charcters one could ever meet. We'd all be serfs again if they had their way. As it is, the serfs in communist China will do for now.
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