No record of it that I have ever seen. Here is the article when they shut down.
"The company, on Country Club Road, makes stoves and, about six months ago, began making carts for the United States Postal Service to haul mail, said Tom Dooley, one of the men who sent home Monday.
"Usually we wait until one minute before 7 a.m. to begin running the machines. Today was totally different," Dooley said.
Phillip Miller, and his father, the company owner, Garland Miller, got the employees together at 7 a.m.
Phillip Miller "read the letter from the bank that they were foreclosing on the loan and he hated it. He said to come back Friday to pick up paychecks for last week and then he sent everyone home," Dooley said.
John Clore, president for the Harrisonburg city market for First Union Bank, which bought Dominion Bank in March and First American in June, wouldn't comment on the details of the problems with Sierra because of "confidentiality for our customers," he said.
Discussions between First Union and Sierra are continuing, Clore said.
"We try to work with our customers, the relationship with Sierra is one we've given a lot of thought and consideration to. It's a decision not taken lightly. We try to give consideration to the impact to the customer and the local community before we do anything. If the borrower wants to comment that's his business, but beyond that I don't want to comment any further," Clore said. `
Garland Miller said only "we're going to make a statement" today.
For Dooley and his co-worker Robert Kimble, it was "Kawneer all over again," Dooley said.
Both men worked for Kawneer Co. Inc. Both were laid off in October 1992. They started working together again for Sierra in March 1993. Both men were making almost $10 at Kawneer and took a cut in pay to just over $7 an hour at Sierra.
Kimble lost his 21-month-old son, Derek, to meningitis two weeks ago, is 45-years-old and this, on top of everything else, has hit him hard, he said.
"I'm lost. I'm mad at the bank, I know that. A lot of beautiful people worked out there. We're not mad at the owner, the man was trying."
Another lay off, the problem of finding a job at his age, the death of his son, "it kicks you, stomps you and keeps you there," Kimble said.
Glade Fertig, Kimble's supervisor, had been with Sierra 10 years, until Monday.
"The only think I know is they were having financial problems and couldn't keep up. There was no indication to us until this morning," Fertig said.
Larry Parlee, owner of Acme Stove and Video Co. Inc. said Monday that he had no idea there were any problems with Sierra.
"Friday I picked up stoves from them, they make our most popular selling stove line. We've been selling their stoves for 17 years and over the years theirs has become the most popular line," Parlee said. "I can't imagine anything wrong from this end."
The irony, Fertig, Kimble and Dooley said, is the timing.
"They had ads in the paper for welders and production workers wanted because of the postal contract which was a $2.5 million contract. If they did good, then in two and a half years they could get another contract. It could have gone on indefinitely," Dooley said.
The postal contract started six months ago, and another 60 employees were being hired, Dooley said.
The carts are about six feet high, two feet wide and four feet long and carry mail inside post offices, Fertig said.
"It was a big contract, (the Millers) had to invest a lot of money to get the thing started which is where the financial problems came in, we had the machinery, but the dies to make the cart with we bought, we also bought bending machines to bend the metal," Fertig said.
Dooley went back to the unemployment office Monday and "now I'm looking for a job again. My 26 weeks of unemployment insurance will be up as of Oct. 16," he added.
Because neither Dooley nor Kimble had worked for Sierra for a year, their unemployment is coming from whatever is left of the 26 weeks they were allowed after the Kawneer layoff.
If Sierra can reopen, Phillip Miller told employees Monday they would be called back, but neither Dooley and Kimble or Fertig have their hopes up, they said."