‘We’re All Like Family Here’ : Unemployment: Workers at Vans plant in Orange--many of them longtime employees and many of them indeed related--cope with imminent job loss.
Word that Vans Inc. will close its massive manufacturing plant in Orange was more than just bad news for Sylvia Garibay. It was a family crisis.
Not only will Garibay, a 17-year production line veteran, lose her job, but so will four of her sisters, each of whom has spent more than a decade in the aging and dusty factory permeated by the smell of adhesives and rubber products.
Unexpectedly, the same corporate policy that, for decades, had encouraged families to work together had delivered a devastating blow. Now, dozens of families with brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles working the plant face economic crises.
“Traditionally, when this company was hiring folks, we basically put out the word and people brought in their family members,” said Vans Vice President Craig E. Gosselin. “And we’ve got an awful lot of long-timers.”
Wednesday’s announcement of the July 31 closing sparked an emotional response from Vans’ largely Latino work force.
“Two months’ notice is a short time when you have worked here 17 years,” said Garibay, whose sisters work alongside each other on Vans’ assembly line, piecing together insoles for Vans shoes. “One day they just tell you that you have lost your job.”
Vans executives said that employees will be offered severance packages based on seniority, as well as job fairs, outplacement training and some paid time off to look for work.
But despite the company’s promises, Wednesday was an undeniably bleak day for employees.
Ramiro Pacheco, a nine-year Vans veteran, worried that he will not be able to support his wife and two preschool-age daughters. Pacheco, 24, is concerned that it will be difficult to find another job that pays $8 an hour and offers health benefits.
Pacheco said he hopes to be one of the relatively few employees to be invited to work at the Vans manufacturing plant in Vista.
Like so many other employees, Pacheco’s job loss is magnified by the fact that relatives also are hurt by the announcement. He said a brother and sister-in-law also found out Wednesday that their jobs will disappear at the end of July.
Ernesto Avina, a 48-year-old unemployed trained machinist, did not want to contemplate his future. While waiting in the parking lot for his wife, Victoria, Avina explained that he has not worked in a year and that his wife’s income from Vans has been the family’s only means of support; four of their nine children still live at home.
Layoffs are nothing new for David Lopez, who was let go by a battery manufacturer in the early 1990s. Lopez came to work at Vans in 1992--alongside two of his sisters.
“This has always been a family place,” said Lopez, 48, who learned about the closing early Wednesday morning along with sisters Yvonne Ortiz, 51, and Linda LaBarre, 47. “But I don’t think the worst of it has hit. We’re still here, still working. But once the door closes, that’s it.”
Resentment runs strong among many Vans employees, despite the number of years some of them have worked for the company. “They have not been completely honest with us,” Garibay said. “They claim it’s because of bad sales, but you never know what’s really going on.”
Marfelea Borja, 30, believes that the plant closing is somehow linked to the fact that just about a year ago, some workers began aligning themselves with the Teamsters in a union-organizing bid. Company officials, however, insist that the factory fell victim to falling sales and increased foreign competition.
Ortiz, who worked her way up to a plant-floor management position from a production job in 1968, said that she is very sad.
“Yes, I’ll look for another job,” Ortiz said. “I don’t blame the company, because I know there’s nothing they could do. There were a lot of people who cried today. We’re all like family here.”
* VANS TO CLOSE O.C. PLANT
Troubled sneaker maker will shut down Orange facility on July 31. A1
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The Vans Inc. Saga
* 1966: Paul Van Doren, James Van Doren, Gordon C. Lee and Serge D’Elia found Van Doren Rubber Co., a manufacturer of casual shoes. First production plant opens in Anaheim.
* 1984: Manufacturing operations and corporate headquarters moved to Orange.
* 1988: Los Angeles investment banking firm McCown De Leeuw & Co. acquires company.
* 1991: Company goes public, changes name to Vans Inc.
* 1992: Second manufacturing facility opens in Vista.
* 1993: Immigration and Naturalization Service raids Orange plant, arresting 233 workers as suspected illegal immigrants. Company forced to shut for a day and hire replacements. Stock price plummets. President Richard Leeuwenburg later terminated.
* January, 1994: Company begins subcontracting a portion of its manufacturing to firms in South Korea.
* April, 1994: Unionization efforts begin at both plants, but 1,400 workers reject Teamsters bid, 718-473. Union officials claim company pressured employees unfairly, files charges of unfair labor practices.
* November, 1994: National Labor Relations Board alleges Vans violated federal labor law while battling Teamsters. NLRB seeks to overturn April election results, calls for new balloting. Vans denies allegations.
* March 6, 1995: Vans lays off 380 workers at two factories. Teamsters says Vans let go those supporting union representation. Vans officials say layoffs are necessary because more shoes are being manufactured abroad.
* March 27: Orange and Vista plants shut for two weeks, idling nearly 2,000 workers and signaling possible permanent closure. Teamsters says closure is attempt to defeat its efforts; Vans claims move is based on demand for new shoe line manufactured offshore.
* April 6: NLRB meets with Vans in attempt to avoid trial set for May 1. Company agrees to allow new union election, but talks break down when NLRB insists officials admit to unfairly pressuring employees to reject union at previous election.
* April 20: Talks resume. Vans agrees to allow election June 30 but refuses to admit wrongdoing.
* May 12: Christopher G. Staff resigns after nine months as president. Company announces that fourth-quarter results will fall below analysts’ expectations and that shoes produced by overseas suppliers are outselling domestic products. Weeklong closure at Orange, Vista plants idles 2,000 workers.
* May 31: Vans announces closure of Orange facility effective July 31.
Source: Times reports; Researched by JANICE L. JONES / Los Angeles Times
