The Agora

More than 1,200 hourly and salaried employees lost their jobs last December after Ottawa[base ']s largest employer abandoned the Putnam County village for lower costs in Mexico. Since then, about 1,100 former Philips factory workers have been searching for ways to replace jobs that paid $14 an hour on average, although about 140 either have retired or will within two years.

Some, like Mr. Irwin, have joined or started family businesses or are farming. Some are working at factories typically making around $10 or less an hour or have other lower-paying jobs. One is Janet Erford of Miller City, who is grateful for a post at the county courthouse.

Many, including medical-assistant student Aileen Berger of rural Leipsic, are getting schooling paid for through a program for workers displaced by the North American Free Trade Agreement.

But nearly a third - including Ed Andrews, head of the union representing hourly workers - remain unemployed. Some of them found jobs but have been laid off since.

Crunch time is on for 800 of the 1,100 workers, who as the most senior members of the hourly workforce received pay and benefits from Philips until about two months ago. Mr. Irwin and Mrs. Berger were among them, as was Mr. Andrews, of rural Fort Jennings, but Putnam County[base ']s jobless rate jumped to 6.8 percent in October from 4.6 percent in September as a number of former Philips employees started drawing unemployment compensation.

The village is loosing hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenues each year, and a year after the plant closing, the losses have just begun.

The 7-Eleven store and Citgo station on Main Street announced last month it will close Dec. 17 after an unspecified double-digit sales decline immediately after Philips[base '] closure. Sales were returning to the store, which is just a few blocks from the former Philips plant, but, said Allen Friend, manager,

"It wasn[base ']t anywhere near what we had before. When about 1,200 people stop going by your place of business every day, it makes a difference."

At another spot popular with Philips workers, the Car-E-It restaurant, bar, and party shop on Main Street, business has decreased but not as much as expected, said Marcia Hovest, assistant manager. She estimated the decline is less than 10 percent.

But because a majority of former Philips workers were paid through September, the worst may be yet to come, observed Mr. Irwin, the real-estate agent, whose office sits on a relatively active Main Street.

"We[base ']ve really not experienced the hit yet, I don[base ']t think," he said. "People are still hanging on, and many real disasters haven[base ']t happened yet."

The second story is about the Etch a Sketch, the cute toy beloved of boomers. The company that makes the toy is located west of Toledo, in Bryan, Ohio. Three years ago the Etch a Sketch was manufactured in Bryan, where it had been made for more than 30 years. Then the manufacturing line was moved to China, where the workers don't even make the legal minimum wage. In fact, the workers at the plant had to stage strikes in hopes of moving their wages nearer to the minimum.

Real-world Kin Ki employees, mostly teenage migrants from internal provinces, say they work many more hours and earn about 40 percent less than the company claims. They sleep head-to-toe in tiny rooms. They staged two strikes recently demanding they get paid closer to the legal minimum wage.

Most do not have pensions, medical insurance or work contracts. The company's crib sheet recommends if inspectors press to see such documents, workers should "intentionally waste time and then say they can't find them," according to company memos provided to The New York Times by employees.

After first saying that Kin Ki strictly abides by all Chinese labor laws, Johnson Tao, a senior executive with the privately owned company, acknowledged that Kin Ki's wages and benefits fell short of legal levels and vowed to address the issue soon.

Even though a five-day, 40-hour work week is mandated by law, the factory forces the workers to work 12- hour shifts, seven days a week.

The move to China cost the town of Bryan (pop. 8,000) 100 jobs, and the effects three years later are familiar:

In a small town like Bryan, the pain was shared. Bryan's tax base is eroding from the loss of manufacturing and a population drain. The Bryan Times is full of notices of home foreclosures and auctions.

The town's central square is in repose. The drugstores, real estate offices and bars look more like relics than marketplaces.

Many of the 100 still have not found jobs, though some are lucky enough to be paid to unpack the Etch a Sketchs made in China.
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