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By MARY K. BLEWITT
Arundel Newspapers State Writer
Blaming news media and political posturing, Avtex Fibers of Front Royal, Inc. announced last Thursday its plans to lay off almost half of its employees on Friday, Oct. 13.
The company’s decision to shut down its three remaining rayon staple lines will result in the loss of jobs for 318 of 660 hourly workers and 60 of 114 salaried personnel at the Front Royal plant. Avtex will continue to produce the carbonized rayon used by NASA and the Department of Defense for U.S. space and military programs.
The half-century old plant has been plagued by state and federal pollution violations this year. Most recently, the company was allegedly responsible for discharging PCB’s into the Shenandoah River.
Virginia Attorney General Mary Sue Terry asked the court in August to temporarily shut down the plant until repairs were secured to ensure that no further PCBs leaked into the river. Although the court denied the Commonwealth’s request for an injunction, ordering the company instead to salhple discharges daily to prevent further discharges of the carcinogenic chemical, an Avtex spokesman said the company suffered from negative publicity.
“The decision to shut down rayon staple production is due to the unforseeable loss of Avtex’s rayon staple customer base, resulting from widespread, negative publicity associated with the Commonwealth of Virginia’s actions against the plant,” read a statement issued by John N. Gregg, chairman of the board and chief executive of Avtex.
Gregg also described Terry’s efforts to close down the entire plant as “unwarranted.”
Burt Rohrer, spokesman for the attorney general’s office responded that, “The goal of the Common
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