Arsenal work attracts 250 to job fair

By J. Griffin Coop
OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

More than 250 people attended a job fair for the lead contractor in a chemical demilitarization project at the Pine Bluff Arsenal.

Washington Group International was contracted by the Department of Defense to build an incinerator to destroy stockpiled chemical weapons at the Arsenal and decontaminate the site.

The Arsenal stores 12 percent of the national's chemical weapons. Incineration is expected to begin in March.

Washington Group International, which began the project in 1998, had 97 openings Monday in industrial positions. The firm currently operates with one shift, but plans to operate with four full shifts in May, according to Elina Simon, a human resources representative for the firm.

Job applicants will have to pass a 14-point background check that includes questions about sabotage, espionage, treason, association with spies, excessive debt and drug addiction, among others.

"I think it would be safe to say that part of our challenge here is that, even though we get some of the people in the system, there is the surety aspect and the clearance criteria," Simon said. "As we go along in the process, folks get disqualified. They can get disqualified before they actually come on board or shortly after."

The job fair attracted people who have been out of work for months, as well as experienced workers.

Jeff Gillum of Montrose has been unemployed for about nine months and hopes to find work in industrial maintenance.

"I've been unemployed since last May and my unemployment ran out and I still haven't found a job," Gillum said at the job fair. "I guess my chance is just as well as the rest of them. That's all we can do is try."

Danny Swain of Monticello will be laid off by early April, when Burlington Rug Corporation's Monticello plant closes.

"I'm fixing to lose my job at Burlington and then I read (about the job fair) in the paper, so I figured I'd come up here and put in an application for this," Swain said. "You gotta start somewhere."

Positions open Monday included paramedics, mechanical technicians, electrical technicians, plant operators, control room operators, munitions handlers and demilitarization protective equipment tenders.