A6
STATE
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, March 23, 2022
Job fair offers hope to displaced Shearer’s workers
ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — Meeting
employers at the entrance of a
recent job fair, Val Hoxie said
she felt overwhelmed by the
people’s expressions of com-
munity and warmth.
“People were looking for
ways to help,” she said.
There were 47 companies
represented at 52 tables at the
job fair Wednesday, March 16,
at the Hermiston Community
Center.
Hoxie, Hermiston Cham-
ber of Commerce executive
director, helped organize the
event in response to a massive
layoff following the Shearer’s
Foods Hermiston plant fire.
The company laid off all 231
of its employees at the facility.
Companies look to put
workers to work
Employers at tables met
with an estimated 200 to 300
job seekers. By the end of the
fair, which took place between
9 a.m. and 4 p.m., the employ-
ers said they had met with
many people, including indi-
viduals laid off from Shear-
er’s. They said it was a suc-
cessful event, and they hope
to begin hiring from the pool
of these job seekers soon.
At least one of the com-
pany representatives had
worked for Shearer’s. Candice
Chavez, a rack decommission
manager for Amazon, said she
worked for Shearer’s in Herm-
iston for around 10 years, end-
ing in November 2020.
She called her leaving
“bittersweet.” She said she
enjoyed working for Shear-
er’s. She grew a lot during
that time, she said, and she left
only because Amazon gave
her even more opportunities
to grow.
She said she has seen the
Shearer’s site since the fire,
and it filled her with “a lot of
emotions.” She put in a lot of
hard work there, she said, and
it felt miserable seeing every-
thing go up in flames, literally.
Still, she said, there is life
after Shearer’s. She was able
to move on after she ended her
job with the company, and she
felt confident other people can
do likewise.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
People gather around a booth for Lamb Weston during a job fair Wednesday, March 16, 2022, at the Hermiston Community Center
in Hermiston.
“There are opportunities
for people out there,” she said.
“You can see it all over in
here. There are places people
can go for jobs, and they need
to have hope.”
Erik Estrada, protection
technician with Corteva Agri-
Science, also had advice for
job seekers. He said he recom-
mends people to accept help
from other people.
“We want to help them in
the best way that we can,” he
said.
He said he spoke with for-
mer Shearer’s workers, and he
felt good he could be of assis-
tance to them in finding work.
There were a few job post-
ings on the Corteva table at
the job fair. They were for a
maintenance coordinator, a
field research intern and a pro-
duction technician.
The production techni-
cian job comes with a $1,500
sign on bonus, starting wages
of $20 per hour and benefits.
Estrada said this job or others
at Corteva would be good for
recently displaced Shearer’s
employees.
Another company repre-
sentative, Tom Clouse, also
was looking for workers.
Supervisor of operations for
Williams, an energy company,
Clouse said he was happy to
speak with the former Shear-
er’s workers.
These employees, he said,
have a lot of good experience,
including work with program-
mable logic controllers.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Job lists for companies at the Port of Morrow line a table Wednes-
day, March 16, 2022, during a job fair at the Hermiston Commu-
nity Center.
“We can use that,” he said.
“That’s why we’re here,” a
coworker said.
Perry Lamprey, who also
was representing Williams
at the job fair, said he was
pleased with the people he had
met from Shearer’s, and he
was hopeful of being part of a
solution to put people in jobs.
A similar sentiment was
expressed by Elsa Enriquez,
a human resources employee
for Walmart Distribution Cen-
ter, Hermiston. She said she
met one former Shearer’s
employee whose story stuck
with her.
Enriquez said the woman
she met was older and did
not speak English. She was
successful at Shearer’s, and
she was worried she would
not be able to find another
job, Enriquez said. Though
Walmart did not hire the
woman on the spot, Enriquez
said she did give her informa-
tion about applying for a job.
It is possible, she said, that
Walmart will hire her and
other people like her.
“It was devastating what
happened to them, and I think
there are things we can do for
them,” Enriquez said. “I feel
good about that.”
Representing the Port of
Morrow, Kimberly Rill, work-
force training specialist, was
at the job fair to tell people
about jobs at several local
companies. She passed out job
posts from companies includ-
ing Boardman Foods, Ama-
zon, Tillamook and Threemile
Canyon Farms.
“It’s a sad situation,” she
said, “but I think there are a lot
of opportunities for people.”
She added she had spo-
ken to many people, includ-
ing Shearer’s employees. The
Port of Morrow, she said, was
happy to be part of the many
groups helping out.
Becky Self, Inter-Con
Security recruiter, agreed.
She said the Shearer’s work-
ers have gone through some-
thing that was “really devas-
tating.” Her husband, she said,
was a volunteer at the site of
the fire, and she could attest to
the awful situation they were
facing.
Now meeting with the for-
mer employees, she said she
was glad to be assisting. As
Shearer’s, she said, is offer-
ing people six weeks of sever-
ance, it is good for them to be
out looking for jobs and think-
ing long term.
Inter-Con, she said, has 20
positions it is trying to fill, and
she could see Shearer’s work-
ers doing well as security
officers.
Sammantha Hoisington, of
Oregon Department of Cor-
rections, was trying to attract
people to be corrections offi-
cers. She told people that they
could start as officers for East-
ern Oregon Correctional Insti-
tution, Pendleton, then shift
over to maintenance if they
were interested.
This might be a good direc-
tion for Shearer’s employees,
she said. Requirements for
a corrections officer include
being 21 years old, passing a
background check, having a
high school diploma and pos-
sessing a driver’s license. She
said that if, after being with
EOCI for a while, officers
could shift over to a position
within the prison that might
be more suitable to their skill
sets.
Meanwhile, Becky Cherry,
human resources recruiter for
Community Counseling Solu-
tions, was at the fair looking
for people who could work
as peer support. She said her
company is growing and could
fill 40 openings, and she was
happy to tell former Shearer’s
employees of opportunities.
Even Blue Mountain Com-
munity College, which was
promoting its educational pro-
grams at the job fair, had jobs
to fill. Tammy Krawczyk,
dean, workforce development,
regional education and strate-
gic partnership, was looking
for candidates for a number
of jobs. Those jobs included
financial aid advisor, athletic
trainer and a program assistant
at Two Rivers Correctional
Institution, Umatilla.
She said she met several
people at the job fair and was
happy to be part of it.
Chamber employees call
the job fair a success
Hoxie, the chamber direc-
tor behind the fair, said she
remembers the day of the
fire. She could see it from her
office. She looked out and
reported having felt ill.
Her feelings changed, how-
ever, when she started hearing
from employers. As the smoke
still rose from Shearer’s, her
phone started ringing, she
said. People wanted to help.
That is when her office teamed
up with the city of Hermiston
to set the job fair into motion.
“We knew we had to do
something,” she said.
At the end of the event,
while many people were
packing up, another chamber
employee stated her feelings
about the job fair.
“This event makes me
proud to be part of this com-
munity,” Ami Little, cham-
ber personal relations director,
said. “When someone here is
hurting, we help.”
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