For the workers at Stewart-Warner, the signs of doom were evident long before the company made it official that cold winter day in 1985.

But Williams’s worst fear–total plant shutdown–has not yet happened. And it may not. Last December, Stewart-Warner was purchased by BTR, plc., a British-based conglomerate that has the money and resources to revitalize operations here, should they choose to do so.

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“BTR is one of the largest companies in Great Britain,” says Christine Boardman, international staff person for the United Electrical Radio & Machine Workers of America, the union that represents most of Stewart-Warner’s employees. “They have 635 companies in 35 countries. They’re worth more than $5 billion. They’re known for taking over companies and turning them around or dumping them. We know that they have not yet made up their minds about Stewart-Warner. That’s why our trip to England is so crucial.”

“Wage concessions don’t save jobs,” counters Horn, whose union did, however, accept what amounts to a two-tier wage structure after a protracted contract dispute with management settled in November 1986. “But we didn’t want to make contract disputes the central part of the coalition. We knew we had to make this issue bigger than the factory. We had to bring in the outside community.”

“It seems as though no one there is thinking about the future. Because if a company wants to grow, it doesn’t pay dividends like that. It reverts these dividends into research and technology. Companies that want to develop new markets bite the bullet today in hopes for a better tomorrow.”

“What we have argued is that because they only spent half as much as their competition on research and reinvestment, their problems are coming home to roost. That’s why they have to modernize. It will require equipment and some training, though not much. Because there’s a remarkably good match between the skills required to operate the equipment now in use at Stewart-Warner–and the skills needed for the new technology.”

“These meetings take place in the Richmond, Virginia, office of Stewart-Warner’s corporate lawyer,” says Horn. “Apparently, hardly any stockholders go to these meetings. It’s all routine. I asked the company’s comptroller when the meetings usually start, and he said: ‘Nine.’ I asked: ‘When do they end?’ He said: ‘I have to tell you, I never miss my 9:30 plane home.’