Community Waits for Full Impact of Tobacco Plant Closing

Source from:  By Linda S. Morris Telegraph Staff Writer 11/01/2004

A year after Brown & Williamson Tobacco officials announced the Macon cigarette plant would close, the initial wave of shock may have worn off, but there are still ripples of concerns and unanswered questions. During the past year, workers say they have put major purchases on hold. They watch their checkbooks more closely. They worry about whether they will be pulling their children out of school mid-year and leaving family and friends for a new job. And they worry about having a job. In the midst of corporate decisions that changed lives, machines at the plant continue to hum. The workers have resigned themselves to their fate - for now. Brown & Williamson, which opened in Macon 27 years ago, announced Oct. 27, 2003, that it would merge with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., creating a new parent company, Reynolds American Inc. That company is based in Winston-Salem, N.C. The Bibb County plant, which employed 2,100 workers when the merger was announced, is expected to have a phased-out shutdown through the first half of 2006, company officials have said. As of Wednesday, 129 salaried workers and 100 hourly workers from Macon had relocated to Winston-Salem, said Fred McConnell, manager of public relations for Reynolds, who used to work in Macon. Another 160 of Macon's hourly employees will transfer by the end of the year. "We're looking at a total of 600 job opportunities" for Macon workers, McConnell said. By the end of last week, about 1,500 people still work at the Bibb County plant, he said. Some people haven't received offers or haven't been transferred to North Carolina because their jobs are still being done here, he said. The company expects to notify workers of their approximate release dates by the first of the year, he said. Tony Williamson, 36, who has worked for B&W for nine years, said his dreams of retiring from the plant were shattered when the merger was announced. "After you get over the first initial shock, then you start getting frustrated, and anger builds up after a while," Williamson said. "It's like an emotional roller coaster. I don't care if you're hourly or salaried, you go through the same emotions." In July, he was given a job offer at the new plant and is expected to report for work Jan. 31 in North Carolina, he said. "The majority of us didn't get offered jobs until June or July," said Williamson, an engineer. "The not knowing was terrible. All you did know was the job you were in was going to end. So, it was very, very stressful, especially when you went to buy something. That's when you would really think about it." The full impact of the pending closure is still looming and B&W workers, as well as local government and economic development officials, are still waiting for the full fallout. "I think it's kind of like an earthquake," said Bibb County Commission Chairman Tommy Olmstead. "It's not the earthquake that will get you. It's the aftershocks. The problem is, because we're not receiving any less (revenue), the real impact hasn't arrived so far as the county is concerned." Early estimates put the amount of annual county revenue losses at more than $5 million once the company fully closes its plant. The company pays taxes on inventory in the facility each Jan. 1, and it plans to move at least five of the large manufacturing pieces of equipment out of the plant before the end of the year, McConnell said. Saralyn Harvey, owner of Good to Go restaurant in Macon, said she didn't realize at first that she would be directly affected by the plant's pending closure. "Not only do I have restaurant customers who are employees, but I was doing a lot of catering for a subcontractor. ..." Harvey said. The loss of "that small connection cost me thousands of dollars." Many workers face the unknown As manager of the supply and shipping department at the Macon plant, Laura Harkey has a pretty good read on what workers are going through. About 100 employees report to her. "They are still anxious about the unknown. É Even if it's bad news, they want to know," she said. "Many haven't gotten job offers yet. I think they will land on their feet, but I take on their burdens." Harkey got an offer in June to start working in North Carolina in January. But in the months before her job offer, she and her husband worried. "I did a really deep-dive study on my finances," she said. "We made a lot of plans on not getting a job offer. We hoped for the best and planned for the worst. We took a vacation like we'd planned, but we went with a budget, which we hadn't done before." Despite the job offer, she and her husband have put plans on hold to replace her 10-year-old Honda Accord with more than 250,000 miles on it. The cost of living is higher in Winston-Salem, she said. "We have definitely tightened up our spending," she said. "We've gone out to eat less." Bryan Hite, president of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers Workers International Union, said the general feeling at the plant remains uneasy. "But you've got to move on," Hite said. "You've got to deal with the worst and try to add some security for your family. If the year has done anything, it provided some people a little preparation time. And, we expect it will be a year more for some." Earnestine High, a cigarette machine operator, has already moved away from Macon and begun working in Winston-Salem. She has a contract on her house here, and the sale should be finalized in a few weeks. She said she was pleased with the relocation package. "You really don't lose," High said from North Carolina. "They pay to have your belongings moved, and you get a relocation bonus to get settled." But she admits to being terribly homesick and calls friends or family every day, she said. It's the first time she's lived outside Georgia. And it's the first time she's been more than a few miles from her family. "I miss my kids, my grandkids, my mother and father back there and my boyfriend," she said, her voice soft. "I go to work and I go home. But hopefully, with time, things will work out." High said she's happier with her hours there. She used to work from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. in Macon. Now, she works an eight-hour shift - from midnight to 8 a.m., Sunday night through Friday morning. "In the long run, I think I made the best choice," she said. "Jobwise, I feel I did, but it seems like I gave up a lot to come here." When the merger announcement came, Carl Walker was taking industrial maintenance classes at Macon Tech, preparing for a better position at the plant. He is a control room operator and has worked for the company 18 years. The closure announcement didn't bother him too much, he said. "My financial situation wasn't so that I couldn't manage my bills at a salary that was less than what I made," Walker said. "So, my financial situation probably was not as grave as others. I felt no matter what happened, I could make it." He also will be moving to Winston-Salem in January and starting a new job. Although he put class work on hold while making relocation plans, he will continue his course work there, he said. The B&W factory was still under construction when Everett Collins began working there in 1976. His wife, Charlotte, began working there less than a year later. The couple was looking to retire. He was going to expand his part-time construction business. She was going to baby-sit her grandchildren more. Everett Collins, 53, has been anxiously waiting to learn his release date ever since the closure was announced. Two weeks ago he was dealt a bigger blow. Collins learned he has throat cancer. He had been cancer-free since he was diagnosed with prostate cancer seven years ago. "This is completely, totally different," he said. "It has nothing to do with the other cancer. Thank God it's not life-threatening. It's curable. It's devastating, but the Lord has really helped me." Collins learns next week if he will have to have chemotherapy or radiation treatment. He will be eligible to retire in February and hopes the company will release him early, he said. "Believe me, I'd rather work another two or three years than face what I've got to face," he said. "But, that's the way it is." Economic impact uncertain Olmstead said the pending plant closing still comes up in conversation, but in different ways than it did a year ago. The community hasn't forgotten about it. "I think it's put a pessimistic feeling amongst a lot of the business people who are worried about the growth of Macon," he said. "I think the (Macon-Bibb County) Industrial Authority and the (Macon Economic Development Commission) have really sharpened (their) aim toward distribution centers instead of trying to find another Brown & Williamson." Macon Mayor Jack Ellis agreed that it would be hard to replace the tobacco giant that pays an average of about $25 an hour. "Obviously, it's a very difficult task, a very daunting task, to replace those jobs paying those kind of wages," Ellis said. "That's not going to happen in this economy." But Ellis pointed out that Macon used to be a textile town that managed to survive even when those plants closed. "Things will change, and we have to adapt," he said. "We will have to continue to upgrade our skill levels, and in the interim go after the warehouses and distribution centers and those kinds of jobs." The county has hired Georgia Tech to conduct an economic impact analysis based on actual data related to B&W. Earlier predictions were based on broad estimates without having all the facts, said Chip Cherry, president of the Macon Economic Development Commission and the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce. "We are in the final phases of capturing the data (Georgia Tech) needs to firm up those numbers," Cherry said. "It's taken a year to fully frame the issue with RJR as to when people will be moved, when raw material will be moved off site and when that site will be freed up for some other use." In July, the company notified the Georgia Department of Labor that it would begin laying off 1,410 workers sometime after Aug. 13. Fewer than 100 salaried workers have been laid off since then, McConnell said. Hourly workers who are not offered jobs won't be let go before the end of this year, he said. Personnel from the company's research and development department have moved to Winston-Salem or have been let go. Of about 150 people in that department, 79 accepted job offers, he said. "Reynolds folks here (in Winston-Salem) have been real impressed with how well-trained the workers are and how positive their attitudes are," he said. About 1,100 employees from throughout all of the former B&W operations, including its Louisville,-Ky. headquarters, have reported to work in North Carolina so far, he said. "The offer process is still ongoing," he said. "This integration plan on the operation side is kind of a moving target, so it's difficult to nail everything down." Williamson, the B&W engineer leaving for Winston-Salem in January, said he's never really been angry at the company, even when his future was cloudy. "Business is business. I think everybody understands that," he said. "But you never think it's going to happen to you." Enditem