Ford workers getting by, one year after plant closes

Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of the closing of Ford Motor Co.’s 82 -year-old plant off Indian River Road in Norfolk. Since then, hundreds of former Ford workers have negotiated the delicate transition to new jobs. Here, you can read and listen to some of their stories.
 

CHRISTOPHER PEARSALL

Christopher Pearsall said his income has been cut in half since leaving Ford, but he's happier than before.

His salary has been cut by more than half. He’s got to pay closer attention to what he spends, what he wears, what he says. But Christopher Pearsall is happier these days.

Even before the shutdown, he enrolled at Old Dominion University, knowing only that he wanted “to stay out of manufacturing.” In the spring of 2007, Pearsall applied for a $15-an-hour internship at Concursive Corp., a software company in downtown Norfolk.

He became a full-time product manager in August, even before he got his degree from ODU. In the job, Pearsall scouts marketplace trends and helps decide which features to include in software.

At Ford, Pearsall said he earned overtime and annual pay of $140,000. His salary at Concursive is $60,000 a year.

He works fewer hours at Concursive – 40 hours a week. He can’t, however, leave his work behind, as he did at Ford, when his day is done.

“It’s fun and challenging, but it weighs on you. You’re constantly thinking about your job. The to-do list goes home with you.”

TIM TAYLOR

Tim Taylor used his severance from Ford to open a hot dog restaurant.

When Tim Taylor was a boy, his father joked all the time about wanting to start a hot dog place. But Tim became an electrician, and spent 14½ years at Ford, primarily helping maintain the heating and air-conditioning systems.
After the plant closed, he opened Tim Dogs , which serves Hormel hot dogs and fries in Moyock, N.C., about three miles from the state line.

He used “a lot” of his pre-tax $100,000 buyout from Ford to get the business going.

He opened too late last year to capitalize on the summer crowds, but he’s hoping the next few weeks turn around, with the rush of tourists headed to the beaches and students returning home.

“It’s been a long year,” Taylor said. “It’s had its good and bad. I really need for this summer to be a good summer. This is what I’ve been working toward all year.”

STEVE TISDALE

Steve Tisdale has filed for bankruptcy and has completed most of a college degree since leaving the Ford plant.

It’s been a rough year for Steve Tisdale, 44, of Elizabeth City, N.C., but he holds out hope for a better future.

Tisdale had worked at Ford for 11 years, ending as an inspector in the trim department in December 2006. Last July, the month after the plant closed, he and his wife separated.

The economic hardship “played a big role, and we kind of went our separate ways,” Tisdale said.

Then, last month, he filed for bankruptcy. Even after the $100,000 pre-tax buyout from Ford, he was more than $100,000 behind on his house and car payments.

The beacon that keeps him from depression is his pursuit of a marine biology degree at Elizabeth City State University. After he receives his bachelor’s degree next summer, he hopes to get a job in a secondary school, following in the teaching footsteps of his mother and two uncles.

CHRIS BARNES

Chris Barnes finds his new job as a Virginia Beach firefighter exciting, but he missed the $100,000-plus he made some years at Ford.

When he was at Ford, life was less nerve-wracking for Chris Barnes .

“I didn’t have to worry about a lot of things, like making sure the bills get paid every month,” said Barnes, 34, of Chesapeake. “Now it’s a struggle sometimes.”

Counting overtime, Barnes said, he sometimes made more than $100,000 a year in his factory job. Now he has a $38,000 -a-year salary as a Virginia Beach firefighter. His wife, Christine, whom Barnes met at Ford, stays home with their six boys, ranging from 9 months to 12 years old.

He likes his new job better – the excitement, the power to help people at their neediest. But he misses the money he earned at Ford. Barnes spent 13 years at the plant.

In October , he joined Station 2 on Haygood Road.

KEISHA JOHNSON and KIM THOMAS

Kim Atkinson Thomas and two of her sisters have become entrepreneurs, opening a gym for youngsters in a former warehouse.

Sisters Keisha Atkinson Johnson and Kim Atkinson Thomas plan to open Jungle Gym LLC in partnership with another sister late next month at the site of a former warehouse and baseball batting cage on Dean Drive in Virginia Beach.

They’ve sunk about $250,000 of Ford buyout and their own investment money into the business. They plan nothing but success.
Thomas had been with Ford for 12 years, working on the trim line; Johnson for 13½, in chassis.

The idea of the jungle gym appealed to the mothers in them; each has a 14-year-old child. For Johnson, it also made lots of business sense:

“No matter what the economy is, kids will always be there. Second, most parents will do almost anything for their children.”

Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com