In June 1998, the Salisbury Post published a special section, Top 100, a profile of the 100 businesses that employed the most workers in Rowan County. The massive undertaking took the entire news and editorial staff six months to complete.
The profile turned out to be a celebration of booming business in the county. Unemployment at the time was about 3 percent.
In an explanation of how the special section was produced, Salisbury Post Managing Editor Frank DeLoache wrote: “You might wonder what standard we used for our list. We decided that the single most important benefit to the county is jobs — full-time jobs with benefits. And that’s what we used.
“That leaves out some companies that do a lot of business in terms of money. It also means that some companies with more name recognition — Cheerwine, for instance — didn’t make the list. Cheerwine employs enough people to make our list, but only 50 of those jobs are in Rowan County. That also explains why Food Lion, the top employer in the state, is not the top employer in Rowan.”
The top 10 employers in 1998 were Freightliner, Rowan-Salisbury Schools, Food Lion, Trevira, the VA Medical Center, Fieldcrest Cannon, Rowan Regional Medical Center, Cone Mills, Rowan County government and China Grove Textiles.
Then the old Earth took a couple of whirls and things changed. Freightliner went on a hiring splurge and then laid off a third of its work force; Trevira became KoSa; Cone Mills closed. The unemployment rate in Rowan County for October 2000 was 9.5 percent, the highest in the state.
The series beginning today will look at what has happened to some of the county’s largest employers since we first surveyed them in 1998, with no attempt to create a new ranking.
Freightliner
In June 1998, Freightliner was Rowan County’s top employer, with 2,850 workers. The plant ran three shifts five days a week, as well as some Saturdays. By that fall, Freightliner workers numbered 3,160, producing 150 trucks a day.
By April 1999, the company was talking bonuses and raises, increasing the top truck assembler wage rate to $21 per hour. As the growth spurt continued, the company’s payroll rose to more than 4,000 people at the Cleveland plant, which was still running three shifts a day in June 2000, with the ability to make 200 trucks a day.
But things had already started to slow down. At first, it didn’t look too bad locally. When Freightliner announced a nationwide reduction in workforce because of a projected decline of up to 20 percent in North America’s trucking industry, only four supervisors were affected at the Cleveland plant.
But the company closed the plant twice, July 3-7 and Aug. 7-11, to reduce production.
Then, on Aug. 15, Freightliner told employees the company would eliminate the entire third shift, cutting 1,304 jobs because of lower demand for new big rigs. The company cited higher gasoline prices, higher interest rates and driver shortages.
Oct. 20 was the last day of work for the laid-off employees, though some still hope to be recalled. As of Oct. 21, Freightliner’s Cleveland plant employed 2,700 people and produced 165 trucks a day.
Rowan-Salisbury Schools
The school system had 2,385 full-time employees in 1998. In 2000, that number rose to 2,568, plus 174 part-timers, serving 20,461 students.
The new Southeast Middle School opened in October.
System spokeswoman Kathy Walters said, “We’ve grown quite a bit. We’ve added tutors and assistants funded through grants programs or additional federal funds. Through agreements with the county commissioners, we have been able to increase local funds per pupil to the state average. That has represented quite a quantum leap. We’ve been able to raise teacher supplements to a more competitive level.”
Walters said the county commission and board of education have designated extra funds directly to teachers for supplies.
The state Legislature has given what Walters called “nice raises” to classroom teachers, but she said that does not apply to other workers, such as directors, food service people and secretaries, all of whom still expect only 2 or 3 percent raises.
“Lots of teachers are now making more than our directors or even some of our principals,” she said. Teachers’ salaries range from $25,000 to about $50,000, depending on their credentials and years in service, she said.
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Tomorrow, Sara Pitzer will update you on other companies in the top 20.
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