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Laid-Off Jac-Pac Workers Search for Work (Raquel Maria Dillon, 2004-03-25, NHPR)

It's been seven weeks since the Jac-Pac plant in Manchester closed and left 550 workers unemployed. The state Employment Security Department could not absorb this vulnerable population of mostly immigrant workers. So state officials got a federal emergency grant worth 2.4 million dollars to boost their unemployment services. In a matter of weeks, a new job training and placement center opened downtown. It will stay open for the next two years, or as long as workers need it. As New Hampshire Public Radio's Raquel Maria Dillon reports, the former Jac-Pac workers who gather there are desperate to start working again soon.

Job hunting is never easy. You need a good resume, networking contacts, and someone to cheer you on when you get discouraged. The former Jac-Pac employees also need English-as-a-Second-Language classes, translation services, and training -- but at least they have the new Worker Assistance Center in downtown Manchester. [...]

Earlier this week, one of the center's new job placement counselors, Rafael Calderon was helping a job-seeker compose a resume. Like some of his clients, Calderon emigrated from the Dominican Republic, and struggled to learn English far from home. He knows finding a job will be isn't easy for new immigrants with few skills. But he's full of confidence and encouragement. He tells them that self-esteem and a firm handshake is just as important as speaking English. [...]

Calderon tries to put them at ease -- He recommends taking the language pill that will teach them English automatically [...]

If only there were...a miracle pill for Felix Soto. He stopped by the Worker Assistance Center with a handful of unpaid bills. He was injured on the job in January, less than a month before Tyson Foods closed down the Manchester plant. He hasn't received any of the workers' comp benefits he expected. But his first priority is finding a new job.

SOTO: yo estoy preparado para hacer cualquier tipo de trabajo – supervisor, produccion (son los ultimos trabajos que yo he tenido). Lo unico que quisa es por el ingles, porque el ingles mio es bien limitado.

VOICEOVER I'm prepared to do whatever kind of job: supervisory work, manufacturing -- that's what my last few jobs have beenâ€| The only thing is English, my English is very limited.

Soto moved from New York City to Manchester about a year ago. Rents are cheaper here, and he says he was lonely in Brooklyn, life is easier here. He lives with his parents and sends money home to his grandparents in the Dominican Republic and to his wife and son in Puerto Rico.

SOTO: vine con la ilusion de progresar y encontrar un futuro para los mio alla en mi pais, y estoy luchando para eso. Tengo muchas illusions metas, espero conseguir un buen trabajo y ahora estoy fuera de trabajo.

VOICEOVER I came with the hope of finding a better future for my family in my home country. That's what I'm fighting for. I have a lot of hopes and goals -- I want to find a good job and now I'm out of work. [...]

About a quarter of the Jac-Pac workers don't speak English. 40% say Spanish is their first language. The rest speak Arabic, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Bosnian and a handful of other languages. At first, workers were reluctant to come to the job center. Calderon says there was some mistrust, and lots of rumors. [...]

About 100 former Jac-Pac employees have found new jobs. Now the center is focusing in on the harder cases -- the workers with fewer skills, no English, no drivers license or transportation. Job Counselor Emily LaBlonte speaks French (with a Canadian accent) and translates for her clients from Togo (who speak French with West African accents). [...]

LaBLONTE: In NH it's so white and so European. For someone like myself, a NH native, it's very striking to see that these people do exist here. Yes, they are a minority, but they're a hidden population. You can live your life in city of Manchester and never run into these people, but they're here and they're working and contributing.

And they're heading back to work -- one by one. Lablonte says that about every day, someone comes in with good news about a new job. Earlier this week it was Michael Kuda, a refugee from Sudan. He says the new job came just in time.

KUDA: I was in a difficult of money. My wife get a new baby, I don't know how to help myself, employment security didn't pay me until today. They say they're going to send check this week. Every day I open my mailbox 2-3 times looking for check, nothing, I don't know what's going on. it's better I will find job and help myself.

Kuda says he'll be working the second shift at a fan factory in Bow. That way he can take classes in the morning, get his G-E-D, and move on to a better job.

KUDA: I'm looking on internet, job sites. All need to have high school diploma, or EGD, if you don't have that they cannot qualify your application to get the job.

LaBlonte says Kuda was one of the easier workers to place, he speaks English, he has a car, and his wife takes care of their five children. Kuda says he'll continue looking for a better job. He earned 9-25 an hour at Jac-Pac, but his new job only pays 8 dollars an hour.

The Jac-Pac tale is emblematic--a Tyson food packing plant whose entire workforce was pretty much immigrants. NHPR has done an excellent job covering the closing, including maybe the only favorable story ever broadcast about Tyson and how they handled the closing and the equanimity with which employees took the news, determined to find new jobs instead of bitching and moaning the way natives most likely would have.

MORE:
Jac Pac workers find welcome at support center (DALE VINCENT, 3/22/04, Manchester Union Leader )

The Tyson plant was a magnet for immigrants and refugees, many of them recent arrivals. One asset is a strong work ethic. Another is they look out for one another. "There's a strong community spirit," said LaBonte.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 25, 2004 7:26 PM