After once being a heated force behind Utah economics, Geneva Steel now sits cold and empty after 58 years of steel production.

Geneva is still trying to find a way to survive in a competitive market, and now 1,400 former employees are scrambling to do the same.

Anger was the common thread of most Geneva workers who flocked to receive financial aid, said Melissa Finch, Mountainland regional director for the Utah County Department of Work Force Services.

"They were desperate because they had been making good money," Finch said. "Now they had to find a job that would meet the financial needs they had accrued over the years."

In November 2001 a layoff sent a wave of employees to various offices of the Department of Work Force Services, which protects the company from creditor lawsuits while reorganizing finances.

Most of the mill operations were shut down completely. Only 60 employees remained to care for the plant until its revival.

But one year later the mill remains lifeless.

The sudden loss of a job and a steady income is a difficult battle many workers must now fight.

"To go from $17 an hour into an economy that averages close to $6-9 is a huge cut," said Terry Walker, manager of operations and scheduling at Geneva Steel. "They are better off collecting unemployment for a year. These workers are not skilled, so to speak, unless they have a trade."

Walker said those who took the unemployment option anticipated the mill reopening within the year. But Walker predicts a high possibility of bankruptcy in the future.

With Geneva's future looking dim, these workers have run out of benefits.

A common struggle for Geneva Steel workers is the inability to transfer skills learned at the mill to other areas of employment in a modern work force.

When employees at Novell were laid off, they were placed in another job usually within a week because of transferable job skills, Finch said.

Many of the employees, like Walker, worked at Geneva Steel as soon as they graduated from high school. Walker started working at the mill when he was 18 years old and stayed there for 38 years.

"There were no home computers back then," he said. "We were lucky to have a 10-key calculator. I do have tremendous managing skills, but I need to have a bachelor's degree to get any of those kind of jobs."

Another skill many of the workers lack is the skill of actually finding a new job.

"It is tough for these guys," Walker said. "They don't have job searching skills. They haven't had to go out and find a new job every four or five years."

Aside from unemployment assistance, workers have another option made available by a tax businesses pay to the state and federal government for each of their employees.

When a situation like that at Geneva occurs, the federal government offers training dollars for workers to return to school for training in a different occupation, according to an administrator of the Utah Valley Department of Work Force Services.

Walker was one who vied for retraining. He chose to learn how to be a pharmacy technician.

"I wanted to get into the medical field. I felt it was a good field for my age because it's not labor intensive," said the 58-year-old Walker.

The retraining option has brought hundreds of the steel workers back to school.

Phil Crawley, 36, a Utah Valley State College student from Sherman Oaks, Calif. majoring in hospitality management said former mill workers are all over the school.

"I have five or six in my racquetball class," he said. "They are going into the heating, ventilation and air conditioning program. I can't imagine them saying, 'Oh, I'm going to take accounting or psychology.' If a person works with their hands I think they would choose something similar to what they were doing before."

Robert Burt, 25, a junior from Carson City, Nev., majoring in history feels the option for retraining is a necessary beginning for the misplaced workers.

"The retraining will give them skills they can use in their new work force," he said. "I don't mind my tax dollars going for that. It is sad that they are being forced to leave good jobs and go out into an uncertain future."

However, of the 1,400 employees, only 25 percent are taking the retraining option.

Tom Billings of Orem, a third generation Geneva Steel worker and employee of 27 years, wanted to take the retraining option but couldn't afford the pay-cut that would result.

He was told he had two years to complete the training. While he recognized the benefits the program would offer, such as payment for tuition, books, and other schooling expenses, his family couldn't live off the unemployment allotment. He needed to hold onto the assets his family currently possessed.

Billings didn't dare take the chance to go back to school at the risk of losing everything.

After several months and dozens of applications, Billings has now found a job as a custodian for Alpine School District.

"One thing about starting a new career is that it takes 100 percent attention in the beginning," Billings said. "The Alpine School District keeps you on probation for three years. I need to keep my nose clean and work at it until the contract gets signed. By that time I most likely will have lost my retirement option."

Billings, who has an 11-by-17 aerial picture of Geneva above his office desk at home, was proud to work at the steel mill.

"I had hoped that one of my sons would work at Geneva," he said. "Now that doesn't look like it will happen."



Copyright Brigham Young University 13 Jan 2003