OXFORD – The Maine Department of Labor will hold two meetings Wednesday at Robinson Manufacturing Co. to help about 70 workers losing their jobs when the woolen mill shuts down over the next few months.

The Trade Adjustment Assistance sessions, offering help for workers displaced by foreign competition, will take place at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. at the mill.

“These training sessions are laid out so as to answer all their questions,” said Elizabeth Wenk, spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe’s office.

As displaced workers, the Robinson employees are eligible for retraining, a $1,250 job search allowance, money to pay for transportation to and from training, and 78 weeks of additional unemployment insurance after 26 weeks have been exhausted.

The workers are also eligible for health care coverage while they are out of work, under the new health care tax credit begun just over a month ago. Maine has become the first state to provide health coverage for displaced workers under the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance program.

But what most of the workers will want most, said Sylvia Plourde of the Rapid Response Program, is another job.

Plourde has overseen 25 Rapid Response sessions in the tri-county area in the last six months, “and at least 60 percent of the workers there immediately want another job,” she said. If immediate employment isn’t possible, she said, “they at least want to know what their options are.”

Diane Jackson, regional representative from Snowe’s office, will be on hand, as will Gerard Dennison of the Department of Labor, and Diane Peet of the Norway Career Center.

The Growth Council of Oxford Hills is also offering help to the workers in the form of a job fair being held in cooperation with the Norway Career Center.

The fair is planned from 9 a.m. to noon Aug. 21 at the Anderson-Staples American Legion Hall on Route 121.

Among employers slated to participate in the job fair are AFLAC, Bonney Staffing and Training Centers, Gates Formed-Fibre Products Inc., Livebridge Inc., Manpower, National Council of the Aging, NEPW Logistics, Oxford Homes, Project Staffing Inc., ReLiv, and The CCS Companies.

Past job fairs have been successful at matching available job opportunities with qualified people, said Barb Olson, vice president of the Growth Council of Oxford Hills. She said free recruiter space is still available for companies wishing to participate.

For more information on the upcoming job fair, contact the Norway Career Center at 207-743-7763. Businesses interested in participating in the event should contact Olson at 207-743-8830, ext. 130.

Copy the Story Link