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Some find success in the job market

JANESVILLE — Diane Kudrna wasn’t the last one to turn off the lights at Lear Corp. in December, but she was close.

With the 12th-highest seniority ranking in the plant, Kudrna was laid off Dec. 23 when Lear closed in conjunction with the end of SUV production at the General Motors plant in Janesville.

But even as she left the company that supplied GM with seats, Kudrna saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

She had another job lined up, one she laid the groundwork for months earlier.

Kudrna is among area workers who have found work after being laid off.

‘I’m learning’

Kudrna and hundreds of other laid-off workers are participating in the state’s dislocated worker program through the Rock County Job Center.

Some in the program have found new jobs, while others are pursuing training in degree or certificate programs. Still others in the program have been unsuccessful in their job searches or are doing little as they collect unemployment benefits and decide what to do next.

As part of the program, dislocated workers participate in a computer assessment of their interests and skills.

For Kudrna, the computer suggested a career in cosmetology.

“I really don’t have an interest in that,” said the 17-year Lear veteran. “I’ll do my kids’ hair, but that’s about it.”

Kudrna grew up on a dairy farm outside Janesville and enjoys being around animals. She thought she’d like to work in a veterinary clinic but wasn’t interested in going back to school.

Then she saw an ad in The Janesville Gazette for a part-time position at a small clinic that does embryo transfers and ultrasounds on dairy cattle. She got the position as part of an on-the-job training program. The state subsidizes the employer for a portion of her wages for a set period of time.

“It’s about a $10-per-hour pay cut, so we’re adjusting at home,” Kudrna said. “The hours, although not full-time, are good, and I’m able to get my son off to school and my daughter to preschool.

“I’m not sure where the job will take me. I’m in something that I’d like to do down the road, and I’m learning and being trained as I go.”

A similar path

Annie Varnes can relate to Kudrna.

She, too, was laid off from Lear, ending a 12-year run in June. She, too, found employment through the on-the-job program.

“I took all the tests and went to the meetings at the job center,” the Janesville woman said.

School was an option for Varnes, and it will continue to be, she said.

But she wasn’t one to sit around long after her layoff. She found a job at Western Container Corp., a small Beloit company that makes spiral wound paper tubes and precision cores.

“It’s a small place and probably not what I will do until I retire,” Varnes said. “But I figured I could maybe learn how to run the presses.”

Similar to Kudrna, Varnes took a new job with a substantial pay cut. When she left Lear, she earned about $19 an hour. She was hired at Western at $9 and quickly moved to $10 and then $11, where she’ll probably stay.

“I’m alright with it,” she said. “I sure would like better pay, but I do have insurance, the hours are good for me and I’m learning some things.

“And physically, I think I could handle going back to school at night.”

A different road

When Stoughton Trailers laid off Robin Rhodes in 2007, the Janesville woman left thinking she knew all there was to know about the trailers towed along the nation’s highways.

Two years later, she knows much better.

As part of the dislocated worker program, Rhodes received an education at Associated Training Services in Sun Prairie, where she earned her commercial driver’s license and now drives a big rig for Schneider National.

“The dislocated worker program helped me out a bunch,” Rhodes said in a telephone interview from Pennsylvania, where she was in the middle of a run from Maine to Kentucky. “I’m very grateful for it, being a single parent.”

Her base pay at Schneider is about the same as what she earned at Stoughton Trailers, but her paycheck is pumped up by the big mileage trips she often takes on her 14 to 17 days away from home.

Driving a truck is something Rhodes always wanted to do. She loves the driving, although it is sometimes stressful and boring. Her cab has a refrigerator, portable DVD player and plenty of books to help her while away idle hours at truck stops.

“I love what I’m doing,” she said. “It’s much more stable than factory work.”

Home sweet home

Marc Gonsiorowski arrived in Janesville four years ago.

Leaving after such a short time, he said, would rip up his family emotionally.

But the former senior project engineer at the GM plant isn’t leaving. He’s found a job with J.P. Cullen & Sons, a contractor that’s been in business in Janesville even longer than his former employer.

Cullen hired Gonsiorowski as a project manager. He’s jumped right in, managing Cullen’s $13.5 million contract to renovate and expand the Education Building on the UW-Madison campus.

Thirteen years into his GM career, Gonsiorowski came to Janesville knowing that the venerable plant could someday close. Reality set in last fall, when GM said it would cease production in December.

Gonsiorowski explored options to stay with GM, even setting up interviews at facilities in Michigan, which he had left four years earlier.

GM then announced cuts in its salaried workforce, and many of those options dried up.

“Then reality hit hard, and I started to think about leaving GM, something I had never thought about before,” said Gonsiorowski, whose family in the Milwaukee area was one of the reasons for his family’s move to Janesville.

He mailed resumes and attended career fairs.

“I was looking for the perfect fit, and some opportunities weren’t a fit while others were for a salary I couldn’t accept,” he said.

He had worked with Cullen on projects at the plant. He knew the company and how it worked; the company knew him and how he worked.

A few conversations later and the position was Gonsiorowski’s. The base pay is slightly below his GM salary, he said, but Cullen offers a performance pay system that should more than make up the difference.

“For me, this is the perfect fit,” he said. “This company’s sense of community, sense of pride and sense of family fit with the way I consider myself.

“It’s fantastic that we can stay in Janesville. We’re ecstatic.”