Published: February 21, 2009 01:36 am      

Philips Lighting closing ‘devastating’

89 employees will lose jobs when local operations end May 29

FAIRMONT — Barbara Garcia just returned to her old job at Philips Lighting Co. last November after being laid off in 1995, and on Friday she learned she would be idled — this time for good — at the end of May when the fluorescent lamp manufacturing company moves the operation to another facility.

All together, 89 employees will lose their jobs upon the May 29 closing of the plant, formerly Westinghouse until the Dutch-based Philips bought it in 1983.

“It’s devastating,” said the 51-year-old Garcia, of Fairmont, who works as a machine attendant.

“I thought long and hard whether or not to go back,” she said. “I was afraid something like this would happen. They kept telling us things looked good and that they had a good many orders, and then, just all of a sudden, they just dropped the bomb.”

Neither Garcia nor Phillip Poling, president of the International Union of Electric and Communication Workers of American (IUE-CWA) Local 627, had any idea when they reported to work Friday what they would learn.

“It came out of the blue,” Poling said.

Two representatives from Philips’ North American headquarters in Somerset, N.J., and two national union representatives were present for the breaking of the news, said Susan Bloom, director of corporate communications. The announcement took place when shifts were due to change at 3 p.m. Friday.

Philips executives made the decision because of the current state of the economy and to streamline production, Bloom said.

“As a prudent company, we are constantly assessing the status of every part of the business,” Bloom said. “Due to the climate and the capacity of the plant and availability at other facilities to do the production that was being done in Fairmont, we elected to make this decision at this time,” Bloom said.

Upon the cessation of production, Bloom said, Philips plans to use the building for storage, and current operations will be moved to one of the company’s four existing manufacturing plants. Bloom declined to reveal which plant that would be. Other locations include Paris, Texas; Salina, Kansas; Danville, Ky.; and Bath, N.Y.

Workers at all but one of the other four facilities belong to a union, Bloom said, but not the IUE-CWA.

“This was not a decision that was made overnight,” Bloom said. “This was planned. We are looking at all facilities constantly. Based on the economics of it and the capacity available, this was the prudent decision.”

Bloom did not know what the plant’s capacity is, but estimated it had been operating at 10 percent to 20 percent capacity.

In its heyday as Westinghouse Corp., the company employed more than 1,000 workers, a number that has dwindled to 89.

“They will not be maintained for the purpose of the storage facility,” Bloom said of the current workforce.

Severance packages for the approximately 80 union members will be negotiated by the IUE-CWA, said both Bloom and Poling.

“We have stuff in the contract that’s in black and white, and there will be other things on top of that,” said Poling, who declined to discuss the severance issue in more depth.

Salaried employees also will get severance, Bloom said.

Eighty-nine employees work in three shifts. Poling worked the 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift, while Garcia reported for the second shift at 3 p.m. Friday and saw a letter on the door about a meeting. The 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift also had been called in.

“They wanted all three shifts there,” Garcia said. “They wouldn’t tell us what the meeting was about.”

The letter “sent everybody into a speculation about what would be happening,” Poling said. “We were dumbfounded by what the result was. We didn’t see that coming.”

After the meeting, workers were allowed to go home.

“Everyone was given a shift off to digest the news and share with their families,” Bloom said.

The plant was built by Westinghouse Corp. in 1941, Bloom said, and purchased by Philips in 1983. In the year 2007, Philips employed 123,800 workers worldwide, according to Wikipedia.

Poling has worked at the company for 4 1/2 years, he said.

“It really hits home,” Poling said. “With the economy the way it is, it hits home.”

Marion County Commissioner Butch Tennant worked at Westinghouse Corp. and then Philips for a total of 41 years, from 1964 until his retirement in 2005. At the plant’s peak, he said, the company employed 2,900 workers.

“Probably in the last 10 years, I’d heard the rumors that it was going to shut down, but I figured it was just rumors,” he said. “It’s a shame. I’d like to see it stay, especially for the economy of the county and the state. I’m shocked at the way they did it.”

He would have preferred if company executives had alerted government officials in order to try to save the plant.

“We would have tried to work with them and I know Gov. (Joe) Manchin would have worked with them and Sen. (Jay) Rockefeller and Congressman (Alan) Mollohan would have worked with them,” Tennant said.

Rockefeller released a statement on the facility closing and referred to President Barack Obama’s recently-passed $787 billion economic stimulus bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, that went into effect Tuesday.

“I’ve worked for more than 20 years to maintain good jobs for West Virginians at Philips Lighting in Fairmont, and I am deeply disappointed by the news of its closure,” he said.

“We must give the economic recovery plan time to do what it was designed to do — create jobs and reinvest in our economy. In the meantime, I want these employees and their families to know that I stand ready to help in any way I can as they face this devastating news.”

Tennant did not know the company planned to use the facility for storage and would prefer if it could be purchased and repurposed.

“We will talk to them,” he said.

Asked what her future holds, Garcia, who in addition to her stints at the facility has worked in retail, said, “I have no idea.”

E-mail Mary Wade Burnside at mwburnside@timeswv.com.