CertainTeed layoffs leave workers uncertain

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June 20, 2009

Anonymous The Meridian Star Sat Jun 20, 2009, 10:47 PM CDT

from staff and wire reports

Building supply manufacturer CertainTeed Corp. has announced an indefinite shutdown of it's Meridian ceiling tile plant and the lay off of 90 workers.

Ricky Ballard, a utility operator at the Meridian plant, said he wasn't entirely surprised to be informed he will be laid off in August

"We'd been real slow for probably the past year or so. We've been working a couple of weeks and then off a week," he said. "We knew it couldn't keep going the way it was going... There wasn't a market for it."

Tim Sears, a team leader at the Meridian plant for 14 years, agreed that the signs of impending layoffs were there. "We kind of saw it coming," he said. "Working a week and getting laid off a week, it couldn't go on like that."

The Valley Forge, Pa., based company said when it announced the shutdown Tuesday that the layoffs would come in 60 days.

Plant manager Kyle Watts said the economic downturn and sluggish commercial building business prompted the decision.

Ballard said he is sorry to leave, but understands why the company made the decision that it did. He said that, because he is diabetic and his wife is a cancer survivor, his biggest concern once he is laid off will be medical coverage.

"The biggest thing," he said, "this is number one, I hope congress will pass something where we'll get some kind of affordable health insurance."

Ballard said he believes most of the workers being laid off are, like him, worried about finding another job in the current economic climate. "There's a lot of uncertainty," he said. "Right now everything is just so slow and Meridian seems to be, they're just not getting any plants or industry in town right now."

Sears agreed. "To find another job in this economic climate in Meridian, Mississippi or anywhere is going to be hard. Especially a job making half of what I was making."

Watts said production will continue until mid-August and then be consolidated with a sister plant in Michigan. He says 15 employees will remain for distribution and sales.

Ballard and Sears said they were informed that the company chose to close the Meridian plant rather than the Michigan plant because the one in Michigan is more up to date and has had more money invested into it.

Ballard said that, along with the medical coverage and paycheck, he will miss the friends he had at the plant. "It's been a great place to work," he said. "It's sad because I made such good friends there. Just a sad situation."

CertainTeed produces ceiling tiles and acoustical wall panels used in residential and commercial construction. The company also operates ceiling tile plants in L'Anse, Mich., and Plymouth, Wis., as well as a ceiling tile grid production facility in Ellenton, Fla.

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