'Nothing to do but wait and keep looking'
Toolbox
By PATRICK McARDLE Staff Writer - Published: January 11, 2009
BENNINGTON – For Jackie and Louis Coon, the world is a much smaller – and crueler – place since they were laid off in November.
These days the Coons spend much of their time in a motel room on Route 7 in Bennington. Even a trip to Rutland to see Louis' three children on Christmas Day had to be considered a major financial undertaking.
Until five weeks ago, they were both happily employed at Berenstein Display, a factory in Shaftsbury that makes mannequins. The couple shares a truck so working in the same place, where Louis, 39, welded aluminum and Jackie, 33, packed and assembled products on the factory floor, was a good fit.
Then everything changed.
"We both been there about a year and a half and we were working," Jackie said. "Thought everything was good. Around October, it started as rumors in the factory. The next thing you know, we started getting layoffs, slowly."
On Nov. 25, two days before Thanksgiving, the Coons both lost their jobs. Jackie and Louis said neither one of them had been laid off before.
Berenstein Display has eliminated about 30 positions out of a total of 100.
The most recent statistics from the Vermont Department of Labor show that the rate of unemployment in November was 5.7 percent, an almost 2 percent increase over November 2007. In Bennington, the unemployment rate was also 5.7 percent; 750 workers were laid off in November.
"If we had been given a choice, I would have volunteered to lay off if he could have stayed working but we weren't given that option," Jackie said. "He went in and they laid him off and I got pulled in right behind him. Merry Christmas to me."
Jackie said not knowing whether she will find work is the hardest part of being laid off.
But asking for help in the meantime has been nearly as difficult.
"It's hard walking into that welfare office after working a year and a half," Jackie said. "It's a very hard thing to going from working every day and bringing home that paycheck every week and being able to pay your bills and buy your food and pay your insurance and whatnot to having nothing."
Louis is diabetic and when he was laid off he lost his health insurance. Now he is relying on the Vermont Health Access Plan, a health insurance program for low-income Vermonters who have lost their insurance because of a layoff.
"What kills me here is that you still have to pay when you get VHAP … and he can't afford to pay the co-pay to get his medication so it's a Catch-22," Jackie said.
In addition to the change in health care benefits, the Coons have had a difficult time getting access to unemployment benefits. Louis said he was unable to get an appointment with the local unemployment office until Dec. 30, more than a month after he was laid off.
Vermont Department of Labor Deputy Commissioner Thomas Douse said his agency is aware of the problems people are having with the system.
Winter is a busy time for the department because of the seasonal nature of many Vermont jobs. In addition, recession-related layoffs have added "more calls than we can handle," Douse said.
In the third week of December 2007, the unemployment office dealt with 5,685 claims. For the same week this year, there were 12,614 claims.
Douse said his staff is working overtime, and the department is in the process of expanding its workforce.
"We do anticipate that with the changes we've made … things will improve," he said.
Douse suggested that people seeking benefits call first thing in the morning on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, when the department receives fewer inquiries. He also advises that callers "be persistent in hitting redial."
Lisa Nutbrown, 36, a single mother from Bennington with three children at home and another daughter at the University of Vermont, is also recovering from the shock of losing a job with NSK Steering Systems America in Bennington. As of December, NSK had laid off about 200 people, out of a total of 325 at the plant.
Like the Coons, Nutbrown said she has been looking for work and hasn't found a job yet. In the meantime, she too has applied for government aid.
"The hardest part is getting through to unemployment because I called for a week. You just couldn't get through," Nutbrown said.
Nutbrown worked at NSK for two years before she was laid off. She said she hoped it wouldn't happen to her but she knew because of her lack of seniority, it might.
"The first round, when I saw the head of (human resources) coming out and letting people go, I started crying because it scared me, because I'm a single mother," Nutbrown said. "I have a decent job here … I'm able to take care of my bills and provide a home for my kids.
"I saw a guy out on my line who had just had a baby in the spring and I saw them go to him and tell him he was going to be done," Nutbrown said. "I was scared. (I) figured, what was I going to do? And then the next round, I was laid off. I went home, and I cried for two days."
For the Coons and Nutbrown, waiting to find work isn't easy, especially with bills piling up and no money coming in. Both families said they considered themselves fortunate to have understanding landlords who had agreed to be patient. The Coons, however, are also behind on payments for a storage unit that holds many of their possessions.
Along with the day-to-day woes of making ends meet with no income, Jackie Coon said her job search has been humiliating.
"I'll take anything but you get the same answers," Jackie said. "Either you get told that, 'Oh we're not hiring' or 'You're overqualified' or 'You really don't want that position' and when you're explaining to them that you don't care what it is, you'll take it, they just kind of look at you."
The layoffs have also strained her marriage.
"We got child support," Jackie said. "We both have kids from previous marriages. Being behind in rent … Everything we had saved up for Christmas, we had used. It's a nightmare. It's a nightmare you don't wake up from."
Perhaps the biggest blow, though is the response from friends and family members.
"They learn that you lose your job and they look at you like, screw you, go find another one," Jackie says. "And it's like, you might want to pump your brakes because in my opinion, no job is safe anywhere, anytime, any place. Anybody can lose their job."
NSK was Nutbrown's first full-time job. When she went from being a temporary worker there to a regular member of the staff, she was able to take care of her family.
Now Nutbrown said she is considering a career in health care because she wants steady work. For now, though, she's not choosy. "I don't really have a preference," Nutbrown said. "I just want to be able to provide for my family."
Nutbrown said she has been honest with her children about her financial predicament.
"What I've told them is the most important thing is that do we have this home," Nutbrown said. "We're going to be able to be together and that's the most important thing. They're being really good about it."
David O'Brien, director of mental health and substance abuse services for United Counseling Services of Bennington County, said job losses were coming at a particularly bad time. Many people already suffer from depression in the winter because of the holidays and seasonal affective disorder.
"Like all of us, people look for balance, order in our lives. To have so much disorder added, presents additional challenges. It can be devastating for people who can not only go from losing their jobs but also losing hope," he said.
O'Brien said he encouraged people to stay away from drugs and alcohol during difficult times and to indulge in "positive" addictions like exercise, eating and sleeping well or seeking out "support circles" like friends, family or faith-based groups.
That may be difficult for people like Nutbrown, who said she feels betrayed.
"It feels like a kick in the teeth, of course," Nutbrown said. "Because I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. I had a good job, was happy with it and all of a sudden, boom, it gets taken away. It's not like I did something wrong so it's very frustrating."
Jackie Coon said she wasn't giving up despite her frustration.
"I hit the road and I apply. There's not much more you can do but wait and call and keep looking," she said.
Contact Patrick McArdle at patrick.mcardle@rutlandherald.com.
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