On the Line In New River Valley

Todd Higginbothan has worked at the plant for 16 years. Photo by Michael Williamson/The Washington Post

DUBLIN, Va.--Inspiration Manager. That’s the title on the business card Marcus Thompson gives Michael and me when we arrive at Volvo’s New River Valley Plant for a tour.

Just a few months ago, Thompson tells us, his title was Communications Manager. But that was before a new boss arrived from Belgium, carrying with him an ambitious mandate: Find ways to move forward even as everything else slows down.

Michael and I have already met several people in Southwest Virginia who have been laid off in recent years from the plant, which produces Mack and Volvo trucks and is one of the largest employers in this region. In 2006, when production reached a high of more than 50,000 trucks, there were about 3,200 employees. Now, there are about 1,200.

Tena Arnold and her husband are among those who have kept their jobs. Their son is among those who haven't.

“I’m all right right now,” Arnold, 44, tells me when I stop at her station on the production line. “But there’s some that’s not.”

Tena Arnold was not hit by the last round of layoffs, but her son was. Photo by Michael Williamson/The Washington Post

As much as layoffs are part of the story of this and other industrial plants, so are the workers who remain. Michael and I walked along the property's 1.6 million square feet–-passing men and women who were welding, assembling and inspecting, all mostly by hand --and we did not find the hopeless, fearful workforce one might expect where jobs are anything but stable.

A workman's hands. Photo by Michael Williamson/The Washington Post

Instead, people spoke about the new environmental initiatives at the plant – moves that would have been more difficult if production weren't at a lull. When the work does come back, and past employees can be rehired, the plant will be ready for optimal production, explained the new manager, Patrick Collignon.

"If you want to survive in 2009, you need to be the best. You can't survive by being average," he said.

Paul Roberts tightens a bolt on a Volvo truck engine. Photo by Michael Williamson/The Washington Post

Collignon is the one who gave Thompson his new title, and on the morning of the tour, it seemed Thompson was determined to live up to it. Above his shirt pocket were the words “Race to Excellence” and the quote he chose to run on the plant's TV screens was from Aristotle: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit."

He then did something to inspire me that I hadn't expected. He let me drive one of the trucks. Even with the seat pulled all the way up, it stretched the limits of my five-foot frame. But with a pull of a knob and a hiss that let me know the parking break was released, I stepped on the gas and hit the open...parking lot.

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