I Survived Zenith

Some 1,500 Zenith Electronics Corp. employees lost their jobs in a series of staggered layoffs after the company announced in October 1991 that it would close its manufacturing plant on East Kearney Street. Many of them chose to stay in Springfield and pursue other careers. Two Zenith survivors shared their stories with Springfield Business Journal. Interviews by Matt Wagner.

Gail Garton

Business and marketing instructor, Ozarks Technical Community College

Gail Garton spent most of her 10 years with Zenith on the final assembly line, building wooden cabinets for larger TV sets. On Nov. 30, 1990, Garton was told to report to the office, where she learned her job had been eliminated in another round of layoffs.

“I immediately began looking for places to go to school,” she recalled.

After ruling out an unaccredited two-year college, Garton enrolled in a two-year secretarial program at Missouri State University. Rather than entering the work force after graduating in December 1992, Garton decided to use the balance of her Pell grant and scholarship to take some education classes.

Garton’s adviser at MSU helped her land a part-time teaching position at OTC, where she was a relief instructor for an office occupations course. A year later, Garton became a full-time instructor. Garton now teaches business and marketing classes and said she’s pleased with the turn her career took post-Zenith.

“I enjoy teaching immensely,” she said. “At least, it’s not as difficult on the body.”

John Peine

Adult program supervisor, Missouri Career Center

John Peine stepped on to the Zenith assembly line at the ripe age of 18 and spent 25 years working for the company before he was laid off in 1993.

Peine was the business agent for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1453 when he lost his job, which wasn’t much of a surprise. Zenith had been cutting worker lines one by one, he said.

Peine said job prospects weren’t too promising for the majority of people laid off by Zenith.

“Those people had worked out there for 20 or 25 years,” he said. “They were on the top end of the pay scales. … And there weren’t any more TV repairmen jobs out there.”

Thanks to his union post and an 18-month U.S. Department of Labor grant, Peine became the official liaison between displaced Zenith employees and Job Council of the Ozarks, a precursor to the Missouri Career Center. But after the grant expired, Peine resorted to “knocking on doors” for employment and ended up as a Greene County 911 operator.

Two stressful years later, Peine was hired by the Career Center, where he spent eight years in the dislocated worker program.

“When somebody came in that was affected (by a layoff), I could relate – been there, done that,” he said.

Peine now oversees the adult program, which helps low-income people find employment, at the center’s local office.