ROANOKE, Va. — A call from the boss interrupted Karl Taylor’s vacation at his home Monday. Taylor, a truck driver and laborer in Norfolk Southern Railway Co.’s locomotive shop, learned he will be laid off, effective Dec. 1, the Roanoke Times reported.
The call came as no surprise.
“We’ve been having these layoffs for the past couple of years since NS purchased Conrail,” said Taylor, of Rocky Mount.
Because he has been expecting a layoff notice, he has been saving his money so he won’t be strapped for cash during the holiday season.
NS laid off 81 employees who overhaul locomotives in Roanoke and 91 employees in its Juniata, Pa., locomotive shop, citing a downturn in business during the holidays. The workers, including machinists, electricians and blacksmiths, will go home for the holidays – -without pay.
Although the union workers are expected to return to work, NS spokeswoman Susan Bland could not specify when.
One union official said NS told him two weeks ago it wanted to avert mandatory layoffs systemwide by asking workers to voluntarily accept a leave of absence. NS wanted to reduce expenses in its mechanical department, said Richard Edmonds, vice general chairman of the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers, System Council 6. But volunteer leaves of absence are not an incentive for workers because they wouldn’t be able to draw unemployment, said Edmonds.
For some workers the furlough notice came as a surprise. “I wasn’t expecting this,” said James English, a machine operator who lives in Bedford County. He was one of the 200 or so workers who got laid off in 2000. He was out of work 18 months before he was called back to work.
Now this.
“I don’t know what to do,” English said. “Nobody in the household is working full time but me. My wife works part time. I can’t enjoy the holidays, knowing I don’t have a job.
“I hope they call us back for the first of the year.”
Two years ago, on the cusp of Christmas, NS laid off about 400 employees. Of those, about 160 employees worked in Roanoke’s East End Shops. They returned to work Jan. 2.