As plant prepares to close, workers find ways to cope
by Steve Bibler
GOSHEN -- When Deborah LeBold struggled with radiation treatments for a brain tumor, her friends and colleagues at Johnson Controls Inc. raised $3,000 to help her family meet extra expenses while she underwent treatment in an Indianapolis hospital.
Though the 50-year-old Goshen resident has worked there just six years, she calls her fellow workers "my family."
That's why Monday's anouncement that the company will close within a year, idling the last 167 workers at the factory that once employed 1,300, has been so hard on people like LeBold.
"I will miss these people," said LeBold, who once worked on the assembly line but since her illness has worked second shift as a custodian. She says she receives good pay and great benefits. She'll miss them, too.
A co-worker on second shift, Lorraine Fragale, echoed LeBold's sense of loss.
"We're pretty close over here. We care about each other," said Fragale, who has worked at the factory for 32 years, most recently as an assembler in the solder department.
After they learned Monday of the closing, one of the first things some of the workers talked about was keeping in touch after they no longer work together, she said.
"We decided we should get together once a year, go out, just to meet and talk," said Fragale.
Both Fragale, who is 57 and divorced, and LeBold, who is married, say they'll look for new jobs.
LeBold's main concern right now is getting health insurance to cover follow-up treatment for her tumor. She'll need an MRI once or twice a year for the rest of her life, she said.
"I believe God will open another door for me," LeBold said.
Fragale says she doesn't know what she will do.
"I'm too young to retire," she said. It doesn't have to be factory work, she said, "but that's all I know."
She said she might inquire at Goshen General Hospital, where she worked in central supply before she joined Johnson Controls (then known as Penn Controls) or maybe the new Martin's Super Market coming to Goshen.
Both women hope a generous severance package will help tide them over until their next job. The workers, all members of Local 1109 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, spent several hours Wednesday afternoon getting the details of that package.
Contact Steve Bibler at sbibler@etruth.com.
Copyright ©1997-2004 Truth Publishing Inc. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment