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From the Ashes
Valley chamber hosts job fair for idled LFP workers
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Business New Haven
6/18/2001
By: Linda Mele
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ANSONIA - The Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce stepped up to the plate along with more than two dozen companies last month to help find jobs for the more than 200 people who were left jobless when Latex Foam Products Inc. was destroyed by fire on May 14.
Representatives of Wal-Mart, Tele-Media Cable Co. of Western Connecticut, Big Y Supermarkets, Stop & Shop, Pitney Bowes, Bic Corp., KX Industries, Workplace Inc., Goodwill Industries and a host of other employers showed up to take advantage of the windfall of employees available to fill their needs.
Don Baumgarten, director of quality engineering at Orange's KX Industries says, “It was a very good turnout - a win-win situation because we need people immediately and they need jobs immediately.”
In fact, some people who weren't LFP workers attended “to test the waters and see what's out there,” as one said.
State Deptartment of Labor representatives were there to discuss the training programs available through the state, and CT Transit was on hand to disseminate information about public transportation and car/van pools that might help get people to work.
Workers got help fine-tuning their résumés. Steven Skrebutenas, job developer at TEAM Inc. of Derby handed out pre-printed forms that illustrated how a résumé should be prepared. It even featured lists of self-descriptive words, action verbs and proven job strength phrases that could be used to “punch up” a resume.
Attorneys Dominick Thomas of Derby and James Sheehy of Ansonia, both members of the Lower Naugatuck Valley Bar Association, were there to give free advice about how to deal with bill collectors and property taxes that will shortly become due and handle mortgage payments.
Griffin Hospital also sent its Mobile Health Resource Center to offer free blood pressure tests and Daun Barrett, coordinator of the hospital's Community Health and Parish Nurse programs, says she referred three individuals to their own doctors for follow-ups.
Barrett says that nobody wanted to talk about being stressed out. “It's early yet,” Barrett says, “but each and every one [who has been displaced] needs to be vigilant about their health because stress can cause a lot of problems.”
David Jackson, 29, has worked at the factory for about a year before the fire. The Oxford resident is helping with the clean-up operation so he's still being paid.
“I don't know how long this will last, though, and I wanted to get a feel for what's out there,” Jackson says.
Roz Sullivan of Derby had worked for LFP for 15 years. When the fire hit, she was a team leader in charge of two departments.
She arrived at the job fair late, so she says she hopes they have another one for people like her who didn't or couldn't get to this one. Many employers say there are ample opportunities out there for workers on all levels. They just have to look for them.
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