Local authorities began using federal grant monies Tuesday to provide out-of-work Cabletron employees with education, on-the-job training and financial aid for household bills.

Thursday, January 06, 2000

Local authorities began using federal grant monies Tuesday to provide out-of-work Cabletron employees with education, on-the-job training and financial aid for household bills.

The grant is a $6 million gift from the U.S. Department of Labor for Ironton’s dislocated workers and Hocking County’s former Goodyear plant employees.

"We already have 112 enrolled into training who will be eligible for the grant, and we’ve had several interested since the announcement," said Jewel Hackworth, assistant administrator to the Job Training Partnership Act program at the Ironton-Lawrence County Community Action Organization.

The Ohio Bureau of Employment Services will manage the grant and provide services to Ohio workers in Hocking, Lawrence and Scioto counties; Kentucky workers in Boyd, Greenup and Carter counties and West Virginia workers in Cabell County, according to the labor department.

The CAO will administer funds locally, Ms. Hackworth said.

It will help agencies retrain workers left jobless when Cabletron shut down by providing classroom education or occupational skills training, she said. And it will help fund job-search services such as aptitude testing, job counseling, transportation and child care.

Officials have placed an emphasis on the "needs payments" provided by the grant for families who need help paying bills during their retraining period because unemployment has run out, Ms. Hackworth said.

"It will be paid to people in full-time training who meet the income guidelines," she said.

For example, an employee in training who wants to be a physical therapist and attending Ohio University for 12 credit hours or more, which is full-time, would receive tuition and other support, Ms. Hackworth said.

If they meet income guidelines they also will receive a needs-related payment equal to their unemployment compensation while the attend classes, she said.

Those not in classes may be able to sign up for retraining or they can stay on the readjustment path while they continue job services, Ms. Hackworth added.

"Everyone that worked at Cabletron can be served," she said. "They can go to training but it doesn’t mean everyone will be qualified for needs-related payments."

And without the grant, local agencies could not have funded all the retraining or adjustment needed by out-of-work employees.

"We would not have been able to do any of this," Ms. Hackworth said.

The grant is only the second federal grant of its type ever approved, she said.

"Helping dislocated workers get back into the labor market is just as important as the work we do helping new workers, such as welfare recipients and inner-city youth, get their first jobs," Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman said. "This is one more way to help keep our economy thriving."