Jobs Harder To Find for Waterbury Cos. Workers

Production at Waterbury Plastics in Randolph has ramped down and most of the 25 or so employees still at the Beanville Road plant are concentrating on clean-up activities, a company official said this week.

The Connecticut-based firm announced in July that it would close down its Randolph plastic-injection molding plant, which employed 70, by the end of this year. Waterbury Companies officials said the firm needed to shift some of its production overseas, where labor costs were cheaper, to remain competitive.

Twenty-six employees were laid off in late September, and 10 more were laid off Nov. 26, according to Thomas Shawyer, Waterbury’s human resources officer.

Some of those losing jobs started working at Waterbury just last year, when Randolph’s Ethan Allen plant shut down, eliminating 154 jobs.

With the unemployment rate higher in Randolph that it was last year—or even six months ago— Waterbury workers are finding it tougher to find new jobs, state officials say.

"It is more difficult to assist people at this time," said Rose Lucenti of the state’s Department of Employment and Training (DET). "We don’t have a lot of opportunity in the Randolph area, and people will probably have to travel (to find new jobs.)

One former Waterbury Plastics employee, who asked not to be named, said she had found another job in Bethel after being on unemployment compensation for five weeks. But overall, she said, "There are not really jobs out there."

The woman said she was without health insurance for this month. The two-month coverage provided by Waterbury had expired, and coverage from her new employer wouldn’t begin until she’d worked there 90 days, she said.

She and other Waterbury employees had experienced some problems in receiving promised severance benefits from Waterbury Companies, the woman claimed.

Waterbury’s Shawyer said this week that all payments were made, though he conceded there had been some delays.

Part of the problem was that the severance payment—more properly called a bonus, he said—had a "roll-over feature" giving recipients an option of putting the funds in an IRA.

Confusion over this led to a "short delay," Shawyer said. Any delay in the health insurance coverage was because "people didn’t send forms in," he maintained.

"At the end of the day, everyone got their two months and we’re continuing to see that everybody does," Shawyer said.

The state’s Department of Employment and Training, which staged re-employment sessions at the plant this summer, is no longer traveling to Randolph, but is still available to help the unemployed find new jobs or retraining, according to DET’s Rose Lucenti.

Retraining Grant

Thanks to a $500,000 "national emergency grant" awarded last month, laid-off workers may be able to enroll in retraining programs at free or reduced costs.

The funds may be used for outreach, assessment, job search assistance, job placement, and other services. Occupations for which training will be provided include health care, technology, and other fields, according to a written announcement from the U.S. Labor Department.

The grant, awarded to the DET, is specifically for retraining workers laid off at Waterbury, Chesapeake Hardwoods in Hancock, and four other employers in Vermont.

The state has several other "pots of money" for retraining available to other workers, including those being laid off at Huttig Building Products in Sharon, said the DET’s Andrea Hussey-Tomasi this week.

"Anyone laid off and not likely to return to that industry or occupation may be eligible for dislocated worker funding," Hussey-Tomasi said.

The funds can be used for training programs offered at vocational centers and other locations, with the provision that there must be some "reasonable expectation of employment" in that new field, she said. Workers can make appointments to find out more about retraining options through one of the DET’s Career Resource Centers. The closest are in Barre and White River Junction.

Unemployment Rates

Mike Griffen, chief of research and analysis for the DET, this week confirmed that the unemployment rate in the Randolph area, based on October statistics, stands at 4.3%, a full percentage point above the state’s 3.3% rate.

Only two regions in the state reported higher unemployment than Randolph: Newport at 5.1%, and Springfield at 4.7 %.

Vermont rates, however, remain well below the national rate, which was 6% in October.

Employment conditions in Randolph have recently worsened. In June, the local unemployment rate was 3.8%, just below the state’s 4.1%.

"Nationally, the economy does appears to show signs of recovery," Griffen said, "but sometimes it takes a little bit of time to impact Vermont."

Griffen said laid-off workers are eligible to collect 26 weeks of unemployment insurance.

The federal Temporary Emergency Unemployment Compensation program could provide an additional 13 weeks—if the program is reauthorized by Congress this month. The TEUC program expires the end of this year, Griffen said.

By Sandy Cooch