MORGANTOWN, W.Va.—In a hotel just off of West Virginia University’s campus in early June, drowsy night shift workers from the local pharmaceutical plant filed through a poorly lit suite, filling out unemployment paperwork, applying for supplemental health insurance and cracking jokes about the breathtaking advertisements for a new state program that will pay you to move to a place many of them are considering leaving.
Six months before, officials at Viatris announced that the plant, which has been a fixture in Morgantown since 1965, would close at the end of July, shipping more than 1,500 jobs overseas. In a state already suffering from the freefall of its signature coal mining industry, the loss of jobs that paid as much as $80,000 sent alarms through the capital.
This spring, the state legislature passed a resolution calling on the governor, Congress and union-friendly President Joe Biden to save the plant by […]
Both good and not so good news..since there doesn’t seem to be some sort of program for the older people who are not tech savvy. It would be interesting if such a educational program came out of the local tech community. Perhaps, one that gave some sort of acknowledgment to the tech workers who would spend a couple hours a week donating their time to teach those who need the learning.
That is a great idea. This would help the local community and, at the same time, maybe allow the locals to view the newcomers less as invaders and more like collaborators in community building. This would revitalize West Virginia.
I hear John Denver singing as I write this.❤