Missoula Steel company lays off half of its work force

Roscoe Steel and Culvert Co. laid off about half its Missoula work force Wednesday, according to employees and company officials.

By ROB CHANEY of the Missoulian

A statement from the company said "a very weak nationwide economy in construction and building market sectors" was forcing it to restructure operations.

"Over the last 15 years, the Missoula operation expanded product marketing throughout the western United States and expanded our work force as a result," the statement read. "In today’s severe recession, this regional market has disappeared and the western Montana market cannot support the previous work force level."

According to employees reached by the Missoulian, 26 of the company’s roughly 50 workers received their notice Wednesday afternoon. They said there were no rumors or other warnings about the cutback.

"They (company managers) said they’re doing a little bit of a reorganization because of hard times the company’s going through right now," said Tom Ehlert, a metal detailer who has worked at Roscoe 15 years and who was laid off Wednesday. "It sounds like it was permanent. It was a big surprise. They broke everybody up into two different meetings, ones being laid off in one meeting and the others were somewhere else."

Workers were given one week’s pay and told they would have insurance coverage until the end of the month. The meeting lasted about 10 minutes.

Roscoe Steel and Culvert has been expanding its facility across from Missoula International Airport for the past several years. It has two other operations, in Billings and Casper, Wyo.

"We’ve developed and invested heavily in the area out here and plan to continue to do so," Missoula facility general manager Steve Patrick said Thursday. He said there were no cutbacks at the Billings or Casper facilities.

The company has been in Missoula since the 1960s. It makes steel pipes for culverts and drainage systems, as well as structural steel for construction projects. It recently fabricated the steel supports holding up the new video screens at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

Patrick said the market for culverts was still strong, but the structural steel market nationwide was "extremely weak." Roscoe’s production was split equally between culverts and structural steel, he said. It would now be focusing on its Montana and Idaho customers.

Staff at the Missoula Job Service office said they were preparing a "rapid response" program for the laid-off Roscoe workers, helping them apply for unemployment insurance and register for new job notifications. But they added the Missoula economy has more people seeking work than jobs available now.

Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at [email protected].

http://missoulian.com/display/inn_news/news05.txt