Thursday, March 11, 1999
Former Mercantile workers begin to heal
BY LISA BIANK FASIG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Not all former Mercantile Stores workers may share the feeling, but looking back, Madalyn Gaydosh thinks she's better off now than when she worked at the department store company.
She's got a new job she loves, paying better than before, and she feels her future is secure. For the first time since she lost her job after Dillard's Inc. acquired Mercantile in August, the 61-year-old feels she can look ahead.
“I love it,” Ms. Gaydosh said of her office assistant position at Technicrete Corp. in Fairfield. “I'm not a corporate-type person. This is just a place where I don't have to wear pantyhose, I can wear tennis shoes.”
Ms. Gaydosh may be an exception among the roughly 1,000 people who lost their jobs when Dillard's acquired McAlpin's parent. But she is a sign that the healing process has begun.
She also represents a chance for recovery that many former Mercantilians still seek as they try to re-enter the job market. Several local agencies operating the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) program are assisting former Mercantile workers with training and — to a lesser degree — job placement.
“They just want to get back into the work force,” said Lou Dabbelt with the Butler County Private Industry Council/Employment and Training Administration, which operates JTPA offices. “They're very, very nice people to deal with.”
Workers from Mercantile have turned to JTPA locations in Hamilton County, Butler County and Cincinnati. Mr. Dabbelt said about 90 former Mercantile workers have contacted his office and 50 to 60 have enrolled in training.
Dave Schwier, administrator of the JTPA program for Hamilton County, said 33 former Mercantile workers have enrolled there, most seeking computer training.
The numbers are not very high because Mr. Schwier thinks the majority of Mercantile's roughly 850 fired headquarters workers had new jobs before it closed in October. Typically, about 5 percent of people from any particular downsizing end up in training, Mr. Schwier said.
“Our involvement probably was starting around October 21,” he said. “At that point, we were looking at 300 (unemployment) possi bilities, I recall.”
Ms. Gaydosh is the last to find a job of four former Mercantile workers who were profiled in The Cincinnati Enquirer. Their story was told in January and their progress has been followed since.
Bobbie Venturini, 47, was the first to find work, in December. She is an assistant at Schlemmer Associates industrial parts in Springfield Township. Jackie Blum, 57, and Cheryl Clevenger, 50, found jobs about a month later.
“I don't really feel like I'm better off, but I feel like I'm very lucky to find a job that I really like, that has a future,” said Ms. Clevenger, an office manager at Cincinnati Investments Council
Inc. “There are several who are not working, but they're taking advantage of the schooling that they're eligible for.”
To some employers, it's a shocker that talented people are going jobless, with an unemployment rate hovering under 4 percent. Several area companies swept in to hire Ms. Clevenger and her friends when their story was first published.
But often it's a matter of matchmaking. Ms. Clevenger said she knows many former Mercantile workers who are on their second or third job since Dillard's closed the Mercantile corporate offices and then a warehouse. Many just weren't happy with the work culture, the people or the expectations of new employers, she said.
Some workers are wrestling with new job requirements after years in one position. Ms. Blum, for instance, reported to Mercantile for 23 years, last working in collections. She is now a preliminary applications analyst with U.S. Financial Life Insurance.
The work is different, but her employer has been very helpful, Ms. Blum said.
“I can't really say I'm unhappy, it's all part of the learning process,” Ms. Blum said. “I'm sure it will work; I'll make it work.”
TO GET HELP
Dislocated workers seeking job-placement assistance or training opportunities can find help through the Job Training Partnership Act, a program providing free job-training and other services. For information, call the Career Resource Center at 731-9800.
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