August 7, 2006
Second acts | Factory closings or layoffs are often followed by offers for job retraining, but how well do those workers fare in their new fields?
By Chris Churchill
Most days, rain or shine, snow or tenacious heat, Jesse Leach pushes his small, white skiff away from shore and motors to what passes for his office: a square dock floating in a quiet section of a waterway dividing the towns of Brooksville and Penobscot.
The dock is the heart of the Bagaduce River Oyster Co., and from its perch, Leach can look out over cages and pens containing nearly one million oysters in various stages of growth. These shellfish are the 60-year-old's livelihood, and they are his effort at a new career. "I'm not saying I make a lot of money," Leach says, his face largely hidden by a white beard, his head covered by a Red Sox cap. "But I'm getting by."
Thirty years ago, Leach was a newly unemployed worker from the Blue Hill copper and zinc mines who turned down a government offer of free job training. Instead, he took to the sea and became a lobsterman, in the days when it was assumed the ocean would always provide a living. But seven or so years ago, the government ˆ in this case, the Maine Department of Labor ˆ again offered retraining, as it tried to help fishermen find a new way of life. This time, Leach agreed, accepting aquaculture instruction from the now-defunct Maine Aquaculture Training Institute in Waldoboro.
Though getting the oyster company up and running has been anything but easy ˆ waterfront landowners, he says, "had three lawyers at the table trying to stop me" ˆ and he's just now approaching the income lobstering provided, Leach says he's glad he made the move. "I'm still on the water," he says. "And this is working out pretty well."
But Leach knows there are many other fishermen who attended aquaculture classes and didn't find the field agreeable ˆ men and women like Jack Castner, a clammer from West Bath. "It's a lot of hoops and a lot of stuff to go through," Castner says of aquaculture. "It wasn't something I was willing to pursue at 50 years old."
Indeed, Christopher Davis, who developed the aquaculture program and works now at the University of Maine, says only about half the folks who enrolled are involved today in aquaculture at any level. While granting that aquaculture is far more difficult than other retraining fields, the statistic cited by Davis raises a question: With mills closing and sea catches dwindling, how well do exiled workers succeed in retraining programs? After all, layoff and plant closing announcements typically are followed by officials declaring that retraining programs will be made available to those who have lost jobs. For example, when the Georgia-Pacific mill in Old Town closed last spring, the Department of Labor responded with a rapid response team that, among other tasks, made workers aware of the retraining options available to them.
But how do such workers do years down the road? How many stick with their new line of work? Do they like their new professions, or do they pine for the job they once had?
Help from the feds
Maine CareerCenters, which are run as partnerships of the state Department of Labor and social service agencies, organize much of the state's job retraining through its 22 offices statewide. In Saco, the CareerCenter office is sited in an old mill complex that once employed hundreds of textiles workers but has since been converted to offices and condominiums.
The buildings, with the Saco River running by them, are evidence the twin cities of Biddeford and Saco, like other industrial centers across the state, have seen their share of industrial decline and unemployment. In the fall of 2003, for example, Biddeford Blankets closed its doors, putting more than 200 employees out of work.
Many of those workers made their way to the CareerCenter office, with trepidation about their future. "It's tough," says Richard Fifield, director of the Saco office. "One day you're making blankets, and the next day you're looking for a new job or a new career. But you still have bills to pay."
Laurie Semo, a Biddeford mother of two, knows that as well as anybody. She'd worked at Biddeford Blankets for six years, right up until the shutdown. But for her the closure ˆ and the retraining money offered in its wake ˆ opened a door she had long wanted to pass through. "I wanted to better myself and it was the perfect opportunity," Semo, 38, says. "I always wanted to be in clerical work, not working in a factory."
Biddeford Blankets was certified under the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, which assists workers who lose their jobs due to foreign competition. That certification made the former Biddeford Blankets workers eligible for a range of federally funded retraining and unemployment benefits. Most significantly, the workers could continue to receive unemployment benefits for up to two years if they were in job retraining programs, buying them time they'd never had before. It allowed many to attend college for the first time.
Semo used the time provided by extended unemployment insurance to attend clerical classes at the Biddeford Adult Education Center, and is now a receptionist at the Biddeford-Saco Chamber of Commerce. "It was tight [financially]," she says. "But at the end it's worth it."
Serving dislocated or Trade Adjustment Assistance workers is only a part of the training provided by CareerCenters and the labor department. There are training programs for low-income youth, for example, or workshops for unemployed folks looking at making themselves more attractive to employers. But providing help for dislocated workers in Maine keeps CareerCenters plenty occupied. "The [factory closings] that make the news we all hear about," Fifield says. "But there's a significant pool of workers who get laid off because of a lack of work."
Many of those workers have stories similar to Semo's. Laura Fortman, commissioner of the Department of Labor, says that of the 2,702 Mainers aided by the TAA program from Oct. 2004 to Oct. 2005, 83% had jobs within three months of leaving the program. "One of the things I am constantly struck by is the resiliency of those workers," she says. "That's one of the most hopeful things I see."
Fortman ˆ noting that her department's budget comprises 85% federal money and that the federal government pays for much of the retraining that occurs in Maine ˆ says the labor department's main role is to offer good advice on where jobs are, and to link workers to available programs, whether at CareerCenters, nearby community colleges or adult education centers, that can provide the training they desire. Those programs typically are ongoing, but can be difficult for a full-time worker to attend or afford. "They're in a state of crisis when they come to us," she says. "They need good information as they make the transition."
A key, however, is getting those workers through the door. "I think there are some holdouts," Fifield says. "We've got people who would go back to the mill situation if it was available. But by and large, they've moved on. If you were involved in textiles, those jobs are gone."
Yet not everybody ends up working in the new field for which they trained. Ex-Biddeford Blanket worker David Moore, 46, who worked for the manufacturer for 14 years, took coursework at the Biddeford Adult Education Center he hoped would lead to a maintenance job. Instead, he works shaping chrome at General Dynamics in Saco.
Still, he doesn't see his retraining as lost time. "I was pretty much computer illiterate," Moore says. "Now, I can get on one and do what I want. And if something went wrong [at General Dynamics], I'm well prepared for looking for another job."
Replacement value?
Maine has bled manufacturing jobs. The U.S. Department of Labor says Maine lost nearly 20% of its manufacturing jobs from 2000 to 2003. And a recent report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. says Maine lost 4.4% of its manufacturing employment from the end of 2004 to the end of 2005.
It's often noted that the wages paid by manufacturers are difficult to replace. "A lot of the jobs we've lost because of foreign trade have traditionally paid very well," says Adam Fisher, spokesman for the Department of Labor. "And a lot of [newer] jobs don't pay as well as the jobs they lost."
That's certainly true for Richard Calvin Wilson, who lost his job at the Great Northern paper mill in Millinocket during the shutdown of 2002. He took business management coursework at a community college as part of his government-funded retraining, and now works at a Hannaford supermarket as a department manager of the deli, bakery and seafood departments.
Wilson, 46, was the third generation of his family to work at the Great Northern mill. "It's been a way of life up here for a very long time," he says. "It provided a very good living."
If given the opportunity, would Wilson return to his mill job? "If I knew it was going to run, then absolutely," he says. "But I'm thankful for my job at Hannaford."
Moore isn't alone. Many workers interviewed for this story said they would return to their now-shuttered mill or factory if they knew the job was stable. That's especially true if they had seniority. Wilson, for example, had built up to five weeks of vacation per year. And even workers who say they have moved on to better jobs occasionally look back to their old job with some sentimentality. "We had a good group of people working there," says Mike Bouthillette, a 10-year Biddeford Blankets worker whose retraining has him working now for Pratt & Whitney in Saco. "It was like a family after working there for so long."
But other retrained workers aren't looking back: Kathy Hooper went to work at a Dexter Shoe Co. factory in Dexter when she was just 21. And she stayed for 20 years, until the plant closed in 2002. "I knew if I got laid off," she says, "I'd go back to school."
With free tuition and time provided by extended Trade Adjustment Act unemployment benefits, Hooper entered a respiratory therapy program at Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield. Today, she works at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, earning, she says, at least twice what she made at Dexter. The factory closure "has been positive for me," she says. "Unfortunately, it wasn't for everybody."
A layoff was also a much-desired second chance for Lisa Valliere of Hollis. Valliere had dropped out of school after seventh grade, but had managed to get a GED later in life. When she was laid off from Fairchild Semiconductor in South Portland, she knew what to do. "The thought of going to college absolutely terrified me," Valliere says. "But [getting laid off] allowed me to focus and get that done."
Valliere studied architectural design ˆ a field she no longer works in. A nephew's battle with cancer led to an interest in platelet donation; today she's a telerecruiter for the Maine Blood Center. It's a job she wouldn't have gotten, she believes, without the training that followed the layoff. "Having a degree made them pay attention to me," Valliere says. "The education helped me. I don't think it was a waste at all."
The dock is the heart of the Bagaduce River Oyster Co., and from its perch, Leach can look out over cages and pens containing nearly one million oysters in various stages of growth. These shellfish are the 60-year-old's livelihood, and they are his effort at a new career. "I'm not saying I make a lot of money," Leach says, his face largely hidden by a white beard, his head covered by a Red Sox cap. "But I'm getting by."
Thirty years ago, Leach was a newly unemployed worker from the Blue Hill copper and zinc mines who turned down a government offer of free job training. Instead, he took to the sea and became a lobsterman, in the days when it was assumed the ocean would always provide a living. But seven or so years ago, the government ˆ in this case, the Maine Department of Labor ˆ again offered retraining, as it tried to help fishermen find a new way of life. This time, Leach agreed, accepting aquaculture instruction from the now-defunct Maine Aquaculture Training Institute in Waldoboro.
Though getting the oyster company up and running has been anything but easy ˆ waterfront landowners, he says, "had three lawyers at the table trying to stop me" ˆ and he's just now approaching the income lobstering provided, Leach says he's glad he made the move. "I'm still on the water," he says. "And this is working out pretty well."
But Leach knows there are many other fishermen who attended aquaculture classes and didn't find the field agreeable ˆ men and women like Jack Castner, a clammer from West Bath. "It's a lot of hoops and a lot of stuff to go through," Castner says of aquaculture. "It wasn't something I was willing to pursue at 50 years old."
Indeed, Christopher Davis, who developed the aquaculture program and works now at the University of Maine, says only about half the folks who enrolled are involved today in aquaculture at any level. While granting that aquaculture is far more difficult than other retraining fields, the statistic cited by Davis raises a question: With mills closing and sea catches dwindling, how well do exiled workers succeed in retraining programs? After all, layoff and plant closing announcements typically are followed by officials declaring that retraining programs will be made available to those who have lost jobs. For example, when the Georgia-Pacific mill in Old Town closed last spring, the Department of Labor responded with a rapid response team that, among other tasks, made workers aware of the retraining options available to them.
But how do such workers do years down the road? How many stick with their new line of work? Do they like their new professions, or do they pine for the job they once had?
Help from the feds
Maine CareerCenters, which are run as partnerships of the state Department of Labor and social service agencies, organize much of the state's job retraining through its 22 offices statewide. In Saco, the CareerCenter office is sited in an old mill complex that once employed hundreds of textiles workers but has since been converted to offices and condominiums.
The buildings, with the Saco River running by them, are evidence the twin cities of Biddeford and Saco, like other industrial centers across the state, have seen their share of industrial decline and unemployment. In the fall of 2003, for example, Biddeford Blankets closed its doors, putting more than 200 employees out of work.
Many of those workers made their way to the CareerCenter office, with trepidation about their future. "It's tough," says Richard Fifield, director of the Saco office. "One day you're making blankets, and the next day you're looking for a new job or a new career. But you still have bills to pay."
Laurie Semo, a Biddeford mother of two, knows that as well as anybody. She'd worked at Biddeford Blankets for six years, right up until the shutdown. But for her the closure ˆ and the retraining money offered in its wake ˆ opened a door she had long wanted to pass through. "I wanted to better myself and it was the perfect opportunity," Semo, 38, says. "I always wanted to be in clerical work, not working in a factory."
Biddeford Blankets was certified under the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, which assists workers who lose their jobs due to foreign competition. That certification made the former Biddeford Blankets workers eligible for a range of federally funded retraining and unemployment benefits. Most significantly, the workers could continue to receive unemployment benefits for up to two years if they were in job retraining programs, buying them time they'd never had before. It allowed many to attend college for the first time.
Semo used the time provided by extended unemployment insurance to attend clerical classes at the Biddeford Adult Education Center, and is now a receptionist at the Biddeford-Saco Chamber of Commerce. "It was tight [financially]," she says. "But at the end it's worth it."
Serving dislocated or Trade Adjustment Assistance workers is only a part of the training provided by CareerCenters and the labor department. There are training programs for low-income youth, for example, or workshops for unemployed folks looking at making themselves more attractive to employers. But providing help for dislocated workers in Maine keeps CareerCenters plenty occupied. "The [factory closings] that make the news we all hear about," Fifield says. "But there's a significant pool of workers who get laid off because of a lack of work."
Many of those workers have stories similar to Semo's. Laura Fortman, commissioner of the Department of Labor, says that of the 2,702 Mainers aided by the TAA program from Oct. 2004 to Oct. 2005, 83% had jobs within three months of leaving the program. "One of the things I am constantly struck by is the resiliency of those workers," she says. "That's one of the most hopeful things I see."
Fortman ˆ noting that her department's budget comprises 85% federal money and that the federal government pays for much of the retraining that occurs in Maine ˆ says the labor department's main role is to offer good advice on where jobs are, and to link workers to available programs, whether at CareerCenters, nearby community colleges or adult education centers, that can provide the training they desire. Those programs typically are ongoing, but can be difficult for a full-time worker to attend or afford. "They're in a state of crisis when they come to us," she says. "They need good information as they make the transition."
A key, however, is getting those workers through the door. "I think there are some holdouts," Fifield says. "We've got people who would go back to the mill situation if it was available. But by and large, they've moved on. If you were involved in textiles, those jobs are gone."
Yet not everybody ends up working in the new field for which they trained. Ex-Biddeford Blanket worker David Moore, 46, who worked for the manufacturer for 14 years, took coursework at the Biddeford Adult Education Center he hoped would lead to a maintenance job. Instead, he works shaping chrome at General Dynamics in Saco.
Still, he doesn't see his retraining as lost time. "I was pretty much computer illiterate," Moore says. "Now, I can get on one and do what I want. And if something went wrong [at General Dynamics], I'm well prepared for looking for another job."
Replacement value?
Maine has bled manufacturing jobs. The U.S. Department of Labor says Maine lost nearly 20% of its manufacturing jobs from 2000 to 2003. And a recent report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. says Maine lost 4.4% of its manufacturing employment from the end of 2004 to the end of 2005.
It's often noted that the wages paid by manufacturers are difficult to replace. "A lot of the jobs we've lost because of foreign trade have traditionally paid very well," says Adam Fisher, spokesman for the Department of Labor. "And a lot of [newer] jobs don't pay as well as the jobs they lost."
That's certainly true for Richard Calvin Wilson, who lost his job at the Great Northern paper mill in Millinocket during the shutdown of 2002. He took business management coursework at a community college as part of his government-funded retraining, and now works at a Hannaford supermarket as a department manager of the deli, bakery and seafood departments.
Wilson, 46, was the third generation of his family to work at the Great Northern mill. "It's been a way of life up here for a very long time," he says. "It provided a very good living."
If given the opportunity, would Wilson return to his mill job? "If I knew it was going to run, then absolutely," he says. "But I'm thankful for my job at Hannaford."
Moore isn't alone. Many workers interviewed for this story said they would return to their now-shuttered mill or factory if they knew the job was stable. That's especially true if they had seniority. Wilson, for example, had built up to five weeks of vacation per year. And even workers who say they have moved on to better jobs occasionally look back to their old job with some sentimentality. "We had a good group of people working there," says Mike Bouthillette, a 10-year Biddeford Blankets worker whose retraining has him working now for Pratt & Whitney in Saco. "It was like a family after working there for so long."
But other retrained workers aren't looking back: Kathy Hooper went to work at a Dexter Shoe Co. factory in Dexter when she was just 21. And she stayed for 20 years, until the plant closed in 2002. "I knew if I got laid off," she says, "I'd go back to school."
With free tuition and time provided by extended Trade Adjustment Act unemployment benefits, Hooper entered a respiratory therapy program at Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield. Today, she works at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, earning, she says, at least twice what she made at Dexter. The factory closure "has been positive for me," she says. "Unfortunately, it wasn't for everybody."
A layoff was also a much-desired second chance for Lisa Valliere of Hollis. Valliere had dropped out of school after seventh grade, but had managed to get a GED later in life. When she was laid off from Fairchild Semiconductor in South Portland, she knew what to do. "The thought of going to college absolutely terrified me," Valliere says. "But [getting laid off] allowed me to focus and get that done."
Valliere studied architectural design ˆ a field she no longer works in. A nephew's battle with cancer led to an interest in platelet donation; today she's a telerecruiter for the Maine Blood Center. It's a job she wouldn't have gotten, she believes, without the training that followed the layoff. "Having a degree made them pay attention to me," Valliere says. "The education helped me. I don't think it was a waste at all."
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