If you have suffered an injury at work or on the job, you may be entitled to receive additional benefits through workers compensation. In North Carolina, this may include time lost from work, disability (full or partial), and medical bills.
GARNER, N.C. -- For the past two years, Debra Pettiway has gone to work in the building where her only son died. As she saw it, she didn't have much choice. "I had to pay my bills," Pettiway said.
Investigators survey the wreckage during recovery operations in 2009 after an explosion wrecked the ConAgra plant in Garner, N.C.
Pettiway, 50, walked out of the ConAgra Foods Slim Jim plant for the final time last week as her 32-year career with the company came to an end.
For the first time in four decades, the sprawling plant on Jones Sausage Road is no longer producing meat snacks. Twenty-three months after an explosion sparked by natural gas rocked the plant, ConAgra wrapped up Slim Jim production on Friday and is shifting its operation to a plant in Ohio.
The move is an end of an era - and a way of life - in Garner, where the plant has offered stable, decent-paying jobs for thousands of workers over the years.
Now the remaining 200 ConAgra employees are wondering what's next as they begin a new chapter in their lives. As it has been for many people, the food plant has been the only job Pettiway has ever known.
When she graduated in 1979 from Smithfield-Selma High School, 17-year-old Pettiway accepted a job at the plant. The pay was good, and she worked her way up to a supervisor position overseeing production.
Pettiway's son, Lewis Junior Watson, quit Clayton High after the 10th grade and floundered for a while. So when he got on atConAgra when he was about 22, Pettiway was pleased.
"He was young," she said. "He needed to work."
They were on different shifts, but some mornings Pettiway would take grits and sausage to her son at the plant. Pettiway was on vacation on June 9, 2009, but her son was at work. That morning, as workers were installing a new water heater, an explosion blasted through the building. A fire broke out, walls crumbled, and debris went flying.
Dozens were injured, some with severe burns. Pettiway figures her son, 33, was at his meat-cutting station at the time of the blast.
Watson didn't make it out alive.
In the months following the blast, ConAgra's future in Garner - and the future of the plant's 900 workers - was murky. At first, ConAgra executives said they wanted to rebuild the plant. Garner and Wake County rallied to persuade the company to stay.
As ConAgra scaled back production at the Garner site, many people lost their jobs. In November 2009, five months after the explosion, ConAgra laid off 250 workers. Another big layoff occurred last month, when 243 workers were let go. In March 2010, ConAgra gave the news some workers said they had been expecting - Slim Jim production was leaving Garner and shifting to a plant in Troy, Ohio.
The choice wasn't an easy one for ConAgra, said Greg Smith, executive vice president of supply chain. "It's always difficult," Smith said. "Any time you make a decision that impacts communities, it's difficult for us. ... It's especially hard when you have a good base like in Garner."
Earlier this year, ConAgra hosted a job fair at the plant in hopes of helping its workers find new employment. About 20 companies - many that offer manufacturing jobs - took part, and nearly 400 workers showed up, said Dave Jackson, a ConAgra spokesman.
Garner is making plans for the future of the ConAgra site. As a parting gift, the company is giving the 106-acre property to the town.
It's also handing over $500,000 for the town to market the site, along with $2.5 million for a community center. The goal is to bring in a company - or multiple companies - that will replace the ConAgra jobs and offer competitive wages, said Tony Beasley, Garner's economic development director.
Two food manufacturers have already toured the site, Beasley said, and four more plan to visit. By next November or December, the town should have a clearer sense of what could take shape there, he said. "It's still a little bit early to tell," Beasley said. "The big thing is if [companies] can pay the wages and have the tax base ConAgra had."
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