ELLSWORTH, Maine — Workers who recently were laid off from Hinckley Yachts in Trenton may not know it, but there are at least 25 people working to make sure they have the services they need to get by until they find new jobs.
Those 25 or so people met Monday morning at the local Holiday Inn to discuss how they can work together to address the needs of the 49 former Hinckley workers who lost their jobs at the end of September. The group, made up of officials from area service organizations such as Washington-Hancock Community Agency, Maine Coast Memorial Hospital and Ellsworth Area Chamber of Commerce, represent the Hancock County Transition Team. The service organizations are working with federal and state agencies such as U.S. Department of Agriculture and Maine Department of Labor to assist the laid-off workers with issues such as health care, heating fuel and financial obligations such as house and car payments.
Betty Rambo of Training & Development Corp. said Monday that members of the coalition have spoken with 28 former Hinckley employees, but the corporation does not have a list of all those who lost their jobs. The company, citing confidentiality reasons, did not release the names of its former employees to the service organizations that make up the transition team, so the team has had to rely on the laid-off workers contacting them, she said.
“People are saying ‘next month I might not be able to make my mortgage [payment],’” Rambo said. “Two or three are really panicking about what they’re supposed to do.”
The group talked for about 90 minutes about how to provide the displaced workers with information about programs or other job possibilities. Organizing a small job fair in the near future and publicizing programs through Web sites such as www.211maine.org were among the priorities discussed by the group.
The transition team plans to meet next from 10 a.m. to noon, Monday, Dec. 15, at Ellsworth City Hall.
Rambo said members of the public who are seeking information about resources available to the recently unemployed can contact her by calling 561-4065 or online at brambo@tdc-usa.org.
On 11/4/08 at 9:04 AM,
Knightscross wrote:
Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden
Train for what? There are no jobs in the area or for that matter in Maine.If any of these workers are smart they will move out of Maine while they are still receiving unemployment benefits and start a new life in another state. Maine is finished, the state is imploding.
On 11/4/08 at 12:07 PM,
JWBooth wrote:
Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden
Twenty-five government workers servicing 28-unemployed. That sounds about right.
On 11/5/08 at 10:53 AM,
commonsense wrote:
Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden
Hold tight Hinckley workers! We just elected Barack Obama, a.k.a. the messiah the 44th president of the United States. His first order of business will be to raise taxes on, well, first he said those making over $250,000, then it was $200.000, last amount I heard out of Joe Biden's mouth it was $150,000. After this task is completed, surely you'll begin selling yachts again!
On 11/12/08 at 12:00 PM,
Bangorean wrote:
Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden
Hold tight Hinckley workers! We just got rid of George W. Bush, a.k.a. the mensa canditate! His last order of business will be to pillage Federal Funds to save the Wall Street thugs and maybe some of that might trickle down to you!
Oh, and the tax is on a family making over $250,000.00 Adjusted Gross Income, and $200,000.00 on individual's AGI. That sorta puts the "Joe the Plumber" argument on hogwash status, since any small business will have tons of deductions before getting down to that $200,000.00 level. And what, pray tell, was the Republican's tax plan? Ever see it in print? No? Maybe because the Lee Atwater/Karl Rove method of lying and leaking mistruths about your opponent became the focus of the campaign? Awwwwww.
On 11/12/08 at 12:10 PM,
anne_of_mdi wrote:
Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden
Oh c'mon, commonsense, Obama isn't "the" messiah, he's "a" messiah. I respect what all these agencies are trying to do. They will help these newly unemployed folks negotiate with banks, write resumes, etc. But the fact is, as Knightscross writes, there are no jobs here. And now with this economic crisis things are just going to keep getting worse. Oh, and yes, the latest news is that millions of the trillion-dollar banks bailout will be paying for CEO bonuses after all.
Post a comment about this story
You must be logged in to post a comment.
click here to log in.
