SWAC area loses more jobs

Western State Hospital in Staunton is laying off 25 workers due to Commonwealth budget cuts, a move that will affect workers who come from surrounding areas.

Today it was announced that McQuay in Verona will lay off 48 workers effective Monday. That plant was hit with a workers' picket in June 2009, at which time I posted, McQuay union employees picket ... have they not seen the economy?

What drove Augusta County-based McQuay's employees to stand on the street and picket yesterday? Union members of the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America lined the street and held signs proclaiming they wanted a fair contract from the company.

Right down the street from McQuay, American Safety Razor has downsized to the point where the employee parking lot is overgrown with weeds. In surrounding Augusta, Staunton, and Waynesboro, hundreds of jobs have been lost as companies struggle in these very difficult economic times ... companies such as Invista, Mowhawk Carpet, Gem Ply, Unifi, Hershey. Citizens have tightened their belts because of job losses, decrease in wages, and cutback in hours.

Is the timing right to stand on the street and protest?

Now 48 workers are being let go.

The economy is not rebounding, as erronerously reported by the Obama administration. Jobs are still being lost, companies are still folding, employees are taking pay cuts, and senior employees are retiring to make room for younger workers.

Look at the millions of dollars in lost pay from approximately 75 jobs just to the SWAC area.