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Out of a job, running out of options

The sign that used to greet workers at the aluminum plants that employed hundreds near this southeast Ohio village reads, “Looking forward to a new beginning.”

William Covert, who put in 27 years at the Ormet plant, has the same sentiment, although his new beginning probably will happen elsewhere.

Covert went out on strike along with 1,200 other Ormet workers nearly two years ago. The strike was settled in July, but Ormet sold the plant in Hannibal where Covert worked, and a reduction plant, where ore is turned into aluminum, remains shuttered.

So Covert began looking for a job at other factories that dot the Ohio River in the southeast corner of state’s rust belt. He is among about 200,000 Ohio manufacturing workers who have lost their jobs since 2000.

Manufacturing layoffs, low-paying service jobs and the exodus of Ohio’s brightest young people to other states have contributed to the state’s economic slumber that is a key issue in the campaign for governor.

“I sent out 40 resumes. Never heard from none of them. Nobody wants to hire a 51-year-old man,” Covert said over coffee at the local McDonald’s where he sat with his wife of 28 years, Debbie.

Instead, Covert has been traveling 120 miles each Monday to Columbus to learn a new trade - driving a tractor-trailer and operating heavy equipment such as bulldozers. The state pays his weekly $135 tuition. He stays with a son who has moved to Columbus.

Once his three-month course ends, the Coverts probably will leave Monroe County. Most of the coal mines that offered lifetime employment have long been sealed, and Ormet had provided the jobs since the 1950s.

As the Nov. 7 election nears, Covert is supporting Democrat Ted Strickland over Republican Ken Blackwell, believing that Strickland has a better grasp of the concerns of people needing a job. The Democrat has represented Monroe County in Congress since his district was redrawn in 2002 and grew up in the western edge of the Appalachian hills that define his territory.

“He came from the same that I did - the farm, the dirt,” Covert said.

The Ormet job paid $16 an hour. The Coverts earned $24,000 last year from his retirement and investments and Debbie Covert’s job at a fast-food restaurant. Covert has two rental properties, but only one is occupied.

Covert feels that Blackwell, currently the secretary of state, would diminish programs that are helping Ormet workers pick up their lives. Blackwell supports cuts in taxes and spending and agrees with President Bush that the best way to boost the economy is with tax cuts.

“Ohio is already sinking. Cutting taxes would only sink it further,” Covert said.

Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said Strickland’s congressional district is one of the poorest in the nation, so the work he has done on behalf of the area doesn’t seem to have worked.

Monroe County voted for Democrat John Kerry in a state that Bush won by about 3 percentage points in 2004. Blackwell lost the county 57 percent-43 percent in this year’s GOP primary while winning statewide with 56 percent of the vote.

Woodsfield, carved from the remnants of the ancient forest that once was Ohio’s canopy, is the seat of Monroe County, whose unemployment rate - 9.3 percent in August - is consistently Ohio’s highest, due in large part to the Ormet closing.

The streets of Woodsfield and the towns that dot the rest of the county, such as Clarington, Hannibal and Fly, are lined with modest homes interspersed with empty and decaying houses and businesses.

The smokestacks of the hulking, white Ormet plants have been still since Nov. 22, 2004, when the workers went on strike rather than accept concessions authorized by the court that approved Ormet’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection.

Since July, Ormet has been trying to negotiate a contract that would provide electricity at a price it says it needs to profitably operate. Even if it does, about half of the striking workers have no job to return to because Ormet sold one plant, whose new owner has given no indication that it will reopen. About 600 workers would be needed at the reduction plant for full operation.

Carl Davis, 54, of nearby Lewisville, is one of the lucky Ormet strikers. He found a job in May with the county’s soil and water conservation district. Other strikers found jobs at plants in southeast Ohio or West Virginia or have left the area, he said.

Davis thinks Strickland knows the area better than Blackwel and would do more to bring back good-paying jobs and keep people from leaving.

“It (Ormet’s closing) was pretty devastating to the county,” Davis said. “Most days, you look around and there’s not much traffic in town and not many people.”

Jerome Potts, another displaced Ormet worker, is leaning toward Strickland but doesn’t seem excited about the race.

“As far as I’m concerned, the Republicans have run this state into the ground. The lesser of two evils seems to be the Democrat anymore,” Potts said.

Debbie Covert, 47, and her husband were planning a comfortable retirement, living off the family’s investments and rental income.

That was before the bills began coming in faster than the money.

“It’s sad. Twenty-eight years of your life is gone,” she said.