News-Record.com

Thursday's lead editorial.

It’s now been five years since textile giant Pillowtex closed its doors, leaving more than 4,000 workers jobless in Rowan and Cabarrus counties. The massive layoff remains the state’s largest.

Bouncing back hasn’t been easy. However, there are hopeful signs. California billionaire and one-time Pillowtex owner David Murdock is rapidly moving ahead with his $1.5 billion technology center at the old mill site.

His vision calls for the N.C. Research Campus to focus on health and nutrition issues and includes hiring thousands of workers. An Atlanta-based consultant predicts that, by 2032, jobs at and related to the Kannapolis campus will employ 13,616 workers in Cabarrus and 4,520 more in Rowan.

Yet the same report warns that a lack of marketable skills, low education levels and limited learning opportunities prevent local job hunters from landing a fair share of those jobs. So far, only modest numbers of former Pillowtex workers have enrolled in state-funded retraining classes that would prepare them for new careers.

That mind-set needs to change. High school dropouts who followed parents and older siblings into the mills must realize that the classroom is the best path to 21st century jobs. No matter who gets them, the thousands of new high-quality jobs will benefit the region and state, but it will be a hollow victory if displaced local residents are on the outside looking in.

And unless there is a marked turnaround, that easily could happen. According to the consultants, community colleges in the area lack the capacity to train enough candidates for the anticipated high-tech work.

Even more troubling is the reluctance of laid-off workers to upgrade their educational levels. The study estimates that fewer than 25 percent of former Pillowtex workers have taken full advantage of low-cost community college classes to obtain diplomas or advanced degrees.
A Rowan-Cabarrus Community College facility to be located on the N.C. Research Campus will add needed class space. It is a $44 million commitment to biotech training that will pay dividends over the next 20 years.

Going forward often begins with looking through the prism of the past. And in the southern Piedmont, tobacco and textiles no longer rule. For downsized workers, accepting that as fact is the first step in moving on.

Murdock’s multifaceted research campus project offers a unique chance for economic redirection. But unless the local work force buys in, full potential can’t be achieved.
While the state can help by funding high-tech training, people who have lost out in manufacturing’s demise must now seize a rare opportunity.