Coffman Stairs lays off 19 employees; jobless rate grows

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

The nationwide slowdown in home construction is having a local effect. Coffman Stairs manufacturing in Marion has laid off 19 employees, but four were recalled Monday, according to Virginia Employment Commission office manager Betty Keith.
For at least a week, Coffman was reported to have furloughed employees at its Marion manufacturing plant, idling both equipment and half of the first shift, according to one community source.
Coffman’s local human resources department did not respond to requests for information from either the News & Messenger or Keith.
“I’m getting nothing, and I mean nothing, from the company,” Keith said early Monday afternoon. An hour later, Keith said Coffman had issued a statement from its Bristol, Va., location that said 195 employees were working, but 19 were laid off.
“But they recalled four today,” she said, “so there are 15 laid off with no return-to-work date.” Employers sometimes project when work demand following layoffs will catch up and require workers’ return.
“Everything is geared to the downturn in the market,” said Keith, who viewed the recalls as positive.
Keith said the company reported no plans for further layoffs.
“Anytime you say people have gone back to work, it means there’s work to do,” she said.
The Coffman rumors circulated on the heels of VEC’s release of March unemployment data that showed a slight rise in the state’s jobless rate because of a slump in residential construction, layoffs surrounding Easter and strikes in the motor vehicle industry.
“Unemployment has been built up a little bit over the year mainly because growth has slowed down,” said William F. Mezger, chief economist with the Virginia Employment Commission.
Nationwide, housing construction is slowing down. The number of homes authorized by building permits in March was down 40.9 percent from the same time a year ago, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
February typically has the highest unemployment rates, but a number of quirky factors combined to continue the increase in jobless numbers for March, Mezger said. Easter came early this year and manufacturers typically furlough employees around holidays.
The unemployment rate in Virginia increased to 3.9 percent, up from 3.8 percent in February.
The unemployment rate in Virginia increased to 3.9 percent, up from 3.8 percent in February, according to VEC numbers.
Smyth County posted a March unemployment rate of 6.1 percent, up from 5.8 in February and 6 percent in January.
Overall for 2007, Smyth’s unemployment rate was 5.4 percent, up from 2006’s 4.6 and 2005’s 4.5. The highest annual rate in a decade was 8 percent in 2002.
Following the closure of textile and woodworking operations, Smyth’s unemployment rate reached double digits in several years through the mid-1990s, garnering national media attention.
Striking automotive employees in Virginia and in the Midwest involved Volvo workers in Dublin, who were on strike from Feb. 1 to March 24. But the United Auto Workers/United Defense Workers strike against General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products in Marion began April 11—too late to have influenced the currently available numbers.
Unemployment claims are not paid to striking workers, but the lack of work at the plant affected companies that supply car parts and components. “When Volvo doesn’t work, they don’t usually work,” Mezger said.
According to GDATP statements, 350 employees are on strike, although union members said last week that three workers crossed the line and returned to work. Strikers are protesting an employment contract they say weakens seniority provisions, cuts pensions, raises insurance premiums and employees’ costs for prescriptions drugs.
Of the 134 counties and cities in Virginia, Arlington County had the lowest unemployment rate, 2.3 percent, while Martinsville had the highest, at 11.7 percent. Locally, Petersburg had the highest unemployment rate, 7.2 percent, according to the employment commission.

Emily C. Dooley, Media General News Service, contributed.