By Steve Powell
Herald Writer
MARYSVILLE — They’re worried about losing their three-bedroom house.
They’re worried about paying for her heart medicine that costs about $160 a month.
In front of their house is a sign that reads: Grandma and Grandpa’s place; kids spoiled here; Pretty soon you could add, "UNEMPLOYED."
Guy and Charlotte Tindall are victims of Boeing’s second round of layoffs. Notices went out recently to Guy and thousands of other Boeing workers who are being laid off because of a downturn in the airline industry following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. On Friday, they’ll be joined by even more people as Boeing issues a new round of layoff notices.
Despite the turn in their lives, the Tindalls are amazingly upbeat.
"You’ve got to be," Charlotte said. "You can’t survive down in the dumps. "
Their top concern, of course, is Charlotte’s health. Now 54, she’s had three heart attacks since she was 40. She had her first one just weeks after Guy got on with Boeing, working on the Minuteman missiles in Montana in 1989.
"Right then I decided to stay with Boeing, no matter what," Guy said.
But Boeing had other plans. He’s been laid off twice before, the last time in 1993.
He went to school — Boeing paid for it — for about 1/2 years.
"When you’re older it’s harder" going to school, he said. "Your mind doesn’t pick things up as well."
When money got tight he ended up moving back to Montana to take seasonal work paving roads. But he soon was recalled by Boeing.
"I don’t know if I’ll ever go back, unless I’m called right away," he said. "I don’t like the cycle — up and down."
Guy, 60, had worked most of his life for his father and then himself, so he was hoping Boeing was his answer for retirement.
It wasn’t.
"I’ll have to work ‘til I die," he said, adding he had planned to retire at 72.
The Tindalls worry about not being able to afford their home. They live in a fairly new subdivision in north Marysville called Kellogg Village.
"We put all our savings into this," Guy said.
Their pride and joy is their backyard waterfall and pond —last summer’s project.
"Our nest egg’s in our back yard," Charlotte said.
"We saved for a rainy day, but we thought that was a few years ago," Guy added.
He hopes to find a job in heavy construction, and he’s also a mechanic. Still, Charlotte is worried.
"Thousands are going to be going after the same jobs," she said.
They could go back to Montana, but they don’t want to. There are better doctors here, plus, three of their four kids and their grandkids live here now.
"Montana’s a nice place, but it’s hard to make a living" there, she said.
Guy said his jobs there often took him hundreds of miles from home.
"You can’t drive home after work," he said with a laugh.
In Montana, the Tindalls, who’ve been married since 1965, owned a family video store for 12 years.
"The town wasn’t big enough for a Blockbuster," Charlotte said. "It wouldn’t work here" in Marysville. Charlotte, who’s had bypass surgery because of a genetic heart problem, said they are not mad at Boeing. She admits they’ve been spoiled by the high wages and excellent benefits. She said she’s probably received half a million dollars in medical benefits.
Guy added he’s enjoyed the work, and "I don’t begrudge anyone who was retained" because it was based on seniority.
Because he’s worked there nine years, he will receive nine weeks of pay and, he thinks, three months of health insurance. But that’s one of the problems. The company’s been slow about getting information to laid-off workers.
"Nobody seems to know what’s going on," Guy said.
He said it was hard getting his pink slip. He wouldn’t even take it from his supervisor, who laid it on a car as Guy was changing a fan belt.
"I had to open it" when he got home, Charlotte said.
"I didn’t want to" open it, Guy said. "I wanna keep my job."
One of the hardest things now is not knowing what will happen. They don’t know if Charlotte will be able to get on disability. She’s tried before and couldn’t.
Charlotte said she’d work a part-time job as a receptionist if she could get some benefits.
"Don’t worry. I’ll find a job someplace," Guy insisted as their yellow lab, Ellie, bounced around the room while cat Millie lounged nearby.
The last time Guy was laid off, he lived in a trailer in Lynnwood outside one of his kids’ home while Charlotte stayed in Lewiston, Mont. It was a long commute, 800 miles, 14 hours by car, but they did it for years.
While that was hard, the layoffs are even harder this time, with worries about a mortgage payment and a van and truck costs, along with the medical concerns, Charlotte said.
"They didn’t affect so many people. It’s a whole new ballgame. You don’t know if you’ll ever get a job back."
Ironically, Charlotte had a physical the day she had her first heart attack. She had a problem with the main artery.
Her pills keep her heart rate at a normal pace. The first heart attack damaged 39 percent of her heart, with 4 percent moredamage in each of the other two. She also lost 32 percent of her lung capacity in the first attack.
Every few months she has to go back to the hospital, which always costs in the thousands of dollars, they said.
They are trying to look ahead. They did get their interest rates lowered to 6 percent on their Discover card. And Guy applied at the International Union of Operating Engineers, but there are 467 people ahead of him.
Guy’s a little upset about being laid off in the second round. He said those in the first wave have a head start in finding new jobs.
He’s also upset with Boeing because, before, workers were given an incentive to retire. But partial retirement this time would only bring him a few hundred dollars a month.
And it angers him that some subcontractors are still working, while Boeing employees are losing their jobs. He thinks the company should look after its employees first.
"It’s my job on the line," he snapped, obviously no longer upbeat. "They don’t need me."
You can call Herald Writer Steve Powell at 425-339-3427
or send e-mail to powell@heraldnet.com.
JUSTIN BEST / The Herald
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