Union leaders of Red River Army Depot employees are taking steps to help out RRAD workers and involve state government in the Texas military posts.
Red River Army Depot is about to release nearly 300 government, contract and term employees, its second round of layoffs this year. The first affected about 600 employees.
The National Federation of Federal Employees and International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers have organized a letter-writing campaign to raise awareness of the issue. The campaign began last week, with over 100 letters going to lawmakers from Texas, Arkansas and other states. Their goal is to stop the latest round of layoffs.
"This is important to the local economy and also the technical base of Red River Army Depot," said Gerald "Jerry" McCarty, national business representative and organizer for NFFE.
"We want to involve the community as much as we can," he said. "To date, we have not gotten a direct response from RRAD's command group on this particular subject."
The campaign focused on getting a response from political leaders. This week, the union revealed that Texas Gov. Greg Abbot had responded by writing a letter to Matt Esper, Secretary of the Army. He emphasized how much the depot does and the expertise available there to support the Army's mission.
"Their highly skilled expertise in manufacturing vehicles for combat environments is invaluable to the effective protection of our brave service members," he wrote in the letter.
Abott mentioned the wide range of tracked and wheeled vehicles RRAD has the sole mission of rebuilding and maintaining, including the Bradley. Because of RRAD's decades of experience working on the Bradley, it is the ideal post for the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle, which the Army will use in the future.
"RRAD would be the most effective option and the most efficient use of taxpayer resources," he said.
In addition, Abbot talked about the community coming together to increase the efficiency and utility of RRAD.
"The state of Texas and local municipalities have invested heavily in RRAD by improving U.S. highways, interstate highways, water infrastructure and railroads in and near the facility," he said. "The Office of the Governor has awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in state grants to Texarkana College to purchase equipment to train employees for the sole purpose of working at RRAD."
In the meantime, workers watch the calendar as their layoff date approaches. Bobby McCarty, 53, who has worked at the depot for nine years, expects to be out of work Aug. 31. He is a term employee heavy mobile equipment mechanic who served four years in the Marine Corps Reserve.
"We have been passing out fliers, posting on Facebook, writing to our congressmen, trying to help drum up business to RRAD," he said. "Nine hundred workers is a big lick for Texarkana and the surrounding towns to take."
"I think we as a union have a good go to make this happen, but we need our management to be interested in this as well," he said.
Martha Brown, a contractor, has been a supply technician with RRAD for more than eight years, but her history with the depot goes back farther than that.
"I lost my husband the day I got my first job offer with RRAD," she said. "I wasn't in a good place then. For a time, I was moving from job to job. But I did eventually end up back, and now, with my current job, am making $19.50 an hour."
Brown, 52, said she could work as a school teacher, but funding the education to get that job is difficult.
"There aren't a lot of jobs in the area that pay comparably," she said.
She said her family has helped, but this makes things more difficult.
"It looked like I might be spared in this layoff," she said. "I originally got my notification taken away, but they returned it to me."
Brown said she leans on her family and her faith to help her in this situation and that she wonders when things will pick up for RRAD.
"The rumors floating around indicate things may not pick up until 2020," she said.
Brown said she is looking at an overseas contracting assignment to continue receiving a paycheck and get some travel experience. While she is excited about the idea, another part of her regrets having to go that far away just to keep moving forward, she said.
"It is hard," she said.