Bush administration to help Md. workers displaced by Black & Decker

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Apr 29, 2003 by John O'Connor

The federal government has approved as much as $1.5 million to provide job training and support services to workers left unemployed by Black & Decker's decision to close its Easton facility.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao said yesterday her department had approved a $500,000 emergency grant for job training and placement for 850 of the 1,300 workers who will lose their jobs. An additional $1 million will be available as the state meets federal benchmarks.

"We've been hit pretty hard with regard to traditional manufacturing," said Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who joined Chao at the Annapolis announcement. "Although these dollars come at the back end, they are nonetheless critical to the people impacted by the layoffs."

The high cost of domestic labor, Ehrlich said, makes Maryland workers less competitive in manufacturing. Instead, he said, the strength of the state labor force revolves around high-tech research and manufacturing.

Black & Decker announced last fall it would close the Easton plant and move production to plants in Mexico, Brazil and North Carolina. Most of the workers at the plant live on the Eastern Shore, which received another dose of bad news last week when Tyson Foods Inc. announced it is closing its Berlin plant -- eliminating at least 650 jobs.

The money approved by the federal government will go toward retraining workers in new fields, job placement services and education, and support services such as transportation and day care.

"A lot of these people worked there for 20 years," said LeRoy Rothe, director of job development with the Talbot County Chamber of Commerce. "It's a big transition."

Nearly 30 percent of the layoffs, or 373 workers, lived in Talbot County -- the hardest hit county. More than 300 Dorchester County workers lost their jobs while another 278 in Caroline County will be unemployed.

Because there are so few manufacturing jobs on the shore, Rothe said many of those workers will have to find new professions, such as clerical work, commercial truck driving or insurance.

"A lot of these people have newfound opportunities," Rothe said. "It's going to get a lot of people into the job market where they did not expect" to be.

The training, Chao said, will enable workers to be more confident re-entering the job market.

"The president and I are committed to helping displaced workers access the job and skills training they need to find new jobs that will enable them to provide for themselves and their families," Chao said. "We hope these funds will be deployed as quickly as possible to help these Maryland workers."