About 900 employees will lose their jobs today. Many don't know what the future holds for them.
February 2, 2007
DUBLIN -- At a recent job fair for Volvo employees, booths filled the first floor of New River Community College's Edwards Hall. Decorated with posters and staffed by suit-clad recruiters, they beckoned to job seekers with brochures, business cards and hints of a new future. "Dream it Do it" read a banner on one.
But perhaps like many at that job fair, Roger Crowder wasn't really looking forward to a new future. More like resigned to it.
Hired by Volvo just four months before, the soon-to-be-unemployed Pulaski resident was searching for work because he had bills to pay: "house payment, utilities; I've got two kids, so everything for them, their lunch and stuff like that, groceries."
One of about 900 workers to be laid off from Volvo by the end of second shift today, Crowder, 32, has spent hours hooking fuel lines to truck engines and thinking about what he'll do once the production line slows.
"My wife's kind of worrying a little bit," said Crowder, who once worked for Community Housing Partners in Christiansburg. "I am trying to figure out exactly what we need to do."
Across the region, a variety of agencies are offering their help. Some deal with the immediate concerns of unemployment insurance and benefits; others promise counseling services; and a few help people such as Crowder plan for a new job, a new education, a new future.
By the time the last laid-off workers leave the plant today, most will have met with representatives from the Virginia Employment Commission.
Denise Hughes, human resource manager for the Volvo plant, said in mid-January that VEC staffers were scheduled for at least three visits to the facility to help workers fill out unemployment insurance forms before they are let go.
In addition, Volvo has hosted town hall meetings with employees and their spouses to explain benefits and available resources, such as the Employee Assistance Program.
The companywide program entitles employees and their immediate family "up to six free visits with a trained counselor for any issue whatsoever," from addiction and anger management to work stress and grief, said Jeffrey Burtaine, corporate medical director for Volvo North America.
Recently, eligibility for the program, which also includes access to financial and legal services, was extended for up to six months for laid-off employees.
Burtaine said roughly 3 percent to 5 percent of employees currently take advantage of employee assistance, but that will likely rise in response to the current period of "crunch and crisis."
"We certainly expect an increase in usage," he said. "But we don't have a sense of that yet."
Institutions have also geared up to help laid-off employees develop plans for the long term, be it new work or new schooling.
Ronnie Martin, executive director of the New River/Mount Rogers Workforce Investment Board, said former Volvo workers are eligible for a dislocated-worker program administered through Virginia Workforce Centers.
The program offers job search assistance, reimbursement of relocation costs and training through an individually tailored process that tries to filter those with marketable skills into jobs and match those in need of training with suitable programs.
"We try to really do a good job one-on-one because it doesn't do any good if you take a person and stick them somewhere just for the sake of doing it," Martin said. "We want people to come out of there with training that will lead them to a decent job making a decent wage."
Often a worker's ultimate aim, be it through training or a job search, is simple: steady employment.
"I think a lot of times folks will come in and they do say that: I just want a job where I'm not going to get laid off in two years," said Angela Covey, associate vice president for work force development at New River Community College. "So they're asking us what do you recommend that we go into in which we'll be able to find a job?"
Answering can be tricky.
Employers often contact community colleges looking for workers with specific training, but school officials say they want to be careful not to rush people into jobs for which they don't have the ability or interest.
"The thing that we just need to do is just do the best job we can in communicating what opportunities are there for them and we try to avail ourselves at any time to just talk with them," said Ron Chaffin, the community college's vice president for work force development.
While Volvo's last layoffs come weeks after the start of New River Community College's spring semester, Chaffin said the school has the flexibility to create fast-track courses or training programs that start when workers are ready.
The key is attracting enough students to fill the classes, and community college officials aren't sure how much interest they'll get from former Volvo employees.
Martin estimated he'll probably get an initial 50 to 100 applicants for the dislocated-worker program, but more might sign up as unemployment benefits run out.
"There's a lot of people trying to put together an appropriate package of information and offerings for these people," Martin explained. "But the sole bottom line is the people: What approach do they take to this layoff?
"Some of the people who work at Volvo, their philosophy is, 'Well, I'm just going to sort of ride it out because I believe they will call me back,' " he continued. "Then, you've got another group of people that maybe have been through one or two layoffs before and ... they basically say, 'I don't think I want to be up and down like this anymore,' and they can look at this as a golden opportunity to get trained."
Leaving Volvo's job fair almost a month ago, Crowder was thinking about taking a fast-track course to earn certification in either welding or electrical work.
A few weeks later, though, he had changed his mind.
"I've decided that I'm just going to find me another job because unemployment isn't going to pay very much," Crowder said. "I can't really go [to school] full time and then work full time, and I have no choice but to work full time so I can pay all my bills."
The struggle is one officials like Covey see over and over again. For even when the programs are plentiful and the education free, real-life demands can be limiting.
"They need to work immediately," Covey said. "They have the car payment that has to be made and they have children and they have medical benefits and they have their choice to work and they'd love to go to school, but it's just not an option because of all the other factors in their lives."
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