Clock ticks for casualties of Pillowtex

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Clock ticks for casualties of Pillowtex

4,300 in Cabarrus, Rowan lost jobs; about 400 have found work

TONY MECIA

Staff Writer


KANNAPOLIS - In the back corner of a small office just a few hundred yards from the shuttered Pillowtex mill, Linda Burton's afternoon is shaping up to be just like so many others in the past six months.

It's 3:30 p.m., but Burton hasn't eaten lunch. Time is in short supply inside this Employment Security Commission office.

The paperwork that will keep her here for at least three more hours piles up around the laptop on her desk. At the front of the office, a couple of dozen laid-off Pillowtex workers -- some in overalls or jeans, others in suits -- wait. To collect their unemployment benefits, they must come here to show they're trying to find work or are enrolled in classes.

Nearly seven months after Pillowtex shut down, wiping out 4,800 N.C. jobs in the largest mass layoff in state history, jobs are hard to come by, and job hunters are growing nervous. For most, benefits will expire this summer.

The shift in outlook is like moving through stages of grief, Burton says.

"When they first came in, they were probably still in shock," she says. "Now it's really coming home that time is ticking away, and at some point they're not going to have any money. Folks are getting a little bit more anxious and a little bit more demanding."

Of the 4,300 Pillowtex workers who lost their jobs in Cabarrus and Rowan counties, ESC officials estimate that 400 have found work. Perdue Farms' chicken-processing plant in Concord took about 50, and NorthEast Medical Center has hired about 25, ESC officials say.

At least 1,500 have flooded local colleges, particularly Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, where many are wrestling with fractions or algebra after decades away from the classroom.

Others have retired, or moved away.

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