Employees who previously destroyed chemical weapons at an Eastern Oregon plant are now re-entering the job market.
Employees who previously destroyed chemical weapons at an Eastern Oregon plant are now re-entering the job market.
“I knew it was a temporary thing, but I don’t think it really click at the time,” said Clint Shoemake, who was recently laid off. “When you’re 19 and they’re saying it’s closing in 2014 or 2015, that seems like forever.”
The next planned reduction of employees of the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility is in March. That cut will reduce the current workforce by half, the East Oregonian reported.
About a quarter of the workers already laid off went directly to other jobs with URS — the company overseeing the facility’s closure — at other plants closing in places like Colorado and Kentucky. Up to 14 percent of the other workers left the Oregon plant before their scheduled reduction.
Read more at The La Grande Observer.
