1958 - N&W Announces Layoff Of 235 More in Roanoke

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Roanoke Times - January 18, 1958

N&W Announces Layoff Of 235 More in Roanoke

   The layoff of 235 more Roanoke employes - the biggest total yet in 
the recent rash of furloughs - was announced yesterday by the Norfolk 
and Western Railway.
   By Wednesday, 201 will be laid off in the Roanoke shops and 34 at 
Shaffers Crossing in this latest move.

   The announcement of the layoffs came on the heels of a report 
yesterday by the Roanoke office of the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board 
that about 300 railway workers in the Shenandoah Valley and westward 
to Bristol have been called back to work in January. More the 1,100 
workers were furloughed at the end of December.
   Yesterday's layoff total almost equaled the entire amount of 
workers furloughed since layoffs started Nov. 15. Only last week 44 
employes were laid off to bring the total to 242.
   A "continued decline in business" was again the reason for the 
layoffs, a N&W spokesman said.
   In the Roanoke shops, 152 car department employes and 49 other 
workers in the locomotive and foundry departments are being laid off 
either Monday or Wednesday.

   At Shaffers Crossing, 17 were furloughed at the close of business 
this past Wednesday, five yesterday and 12 will be laid off Wednesday.

  The decline is generally conceded to be part of the national 
business slowdown which started last summer, and is more specifically 
tied to the decline in the demand for coal carried by the N&W.
   With the retirement board's report of the recalls came a statement 
from the N&W that about 275 furloughed maintenance of way employes 
were called back to work this month. The N&W spokesman said no 
furloughed shop workers have been called back.
   The Virginia State Employment Service said a drop in the number of 
job applicants at the Roanoke office has been noted in the past few 
days, but that the number of unemployed in the Roanoke area is 
estimated to have climbed by 300 persons since Jan. 7.
   Applications for jobs filed through Jan. 15 totaled 650, only 18 
less than filed during the entire month of December. Some 850 persons 
have filed for unemployment compensation in the past 14 days, topping 
last month's total of 821.

   Palmer St. Clair, Roanoke VSES manager, estimated that about 2,500 
persons are unemployed in Roanoke City and County, about 300 more 
than the Jan. 1 figure.

   He said in the VSES' Roanoke area, which includes Roanoke City and 
County, Craig County and parts of Botetourt, Bedford and Franklin 
counties, about four per cent of the total labor force is unemployed.

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- Ron Davis, Roger Link