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By BRUCE SLOANE
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
The Aileen plant in Flint Hill has furloughed 30 employees and has placed 50 others on a three- or fourday week. The plant has a usual workforce of 225.
“We hope this is temporary,” said plant manager Charles “Charlie" Currence, “and that we’ll resume normal operations by the end of August or September."
The Flint Hill plant manufactures blouses and other women’s clothing for the Aileen, Inc. chain of about 130 stores nationwide. Most of the employees - about 195 during normal operation - are involved in “direct” work, said Currence. Direct workers are the seamstresses and similar workers who operate the sewing machines and other equipment to create the clothes.
About 35 other workers are classified as “indirect.” These are mostly clerical, service and maintenance workers.
The direct employees have been the ones most affected by the cutbacks. Most of these employees are women, including many who are the principal wage earners for their family.
“We sew what the stores sell,” said Joyce Wharton, of Sperryville, one of the furloughed workers.
Although Mrs. Wharton has been laid-off, she considers herself luckier than many of her former co-workers. Her husband is employed, and she volunteered for a furlough last month so she could spend the summer with her children and take care of personal affairs. Currence was glad to approve her request because
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