[Times photo: Lara Cerri]
Al Bearman, a steel mill pipefitter for 24 yeras in Baltimore, saw opportunity when he was offered a buyout from his former employer. He took it, came to Clearwater and started rebuilding a career, this time in nursing. Click here for more pink slip updates
CLEARWATER - With his shaved head and solid build, Al Bearman looks more like a pipefitter than a nurse.
And that's what he was, for the past 24 years, doing dirty and dangerous work at Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point mill in Baltimore.
But when Bethlehem Steel went bankrupt and new owners offered employees a buyout package last spring, Bearman, 44, decided to move to Florida and change careers. In November, he began a yearlong course in St. Petersburg preparing him for certification as a licensed practical nurse.
Far from teasing him for entering a female-dominated field, many of Bearman's union buddies envy his decision, he said.
"A lot of them told me they wish they could just pick up and go," he said, adding that many union jobs were restructured under the mill's new owners. "They said they'd have jobs for everybody who stayed, but they didn't say what they'd be doing. I have co-workers who are now sweeping floors."
On Friday, the government reported that the unemployment rate stabilized in November at 5.9 percent, essentially unchanged from October. Even the manufacturing sector may be starting to recover, according to a report earlier this week that showed factory employment growing in November for the first time in three years. Friday's data revealed that factory job losses have averaged 17,000 a month since August, compared to an average decline of 53,000 a month for the 12 months ending in August.
But the slowdown in factory job losses comes too late for Bearman and thousands of other Americans whose work has moved overseas, never to return. More than 34,000 U.S. steelworkers have lost their jobs over the past five years because of consolidation in the industry and foreign competition. The number of manufacturing jobs declined 3.9 percent nationwide in October, compared to a year ago; in Florida, there has been a 3.2 percent drop in manufacturing jobs over the past year.
The Bethlehem Steel plant where Bearman worked is now owned by International Steel Group. It had 4,500 union workers before Bearman and about 850 other employees took the buyout. The mill had 18,000 workers when Bearman started there in 1979 and was built to accommodate more than 30,000.
"My dad was a pipefitter at the mill, and a lot of my family worked there," he said of the plant that is capable of producing 3-million tons of cast steel slabs annually. "When I got out of high school, you either went to Sparrows Point, General Motors or General Electric."
In the mill, Bearman worked his way up to an hourly wage of $24; by piling on the overtime, he managed to earn more than $75,000 one year. "It was lots of exhausting work," said Bearman, whose job entailed installing and maintaining the miles of pipeline used in the steelmaking process. "It was very physical work. You had to be cautious all the time because it was dangerous in there."
Bearman, who has two teenage sons from his first marriage, had always planned to retire from the steel mill at age 50, after 30 years on the job. But when new owners took over, workers became ineligible for pensions until age 62.
"I could have made it another six years, till I finished putting my kids through school," Bearman said. "But I couldn't see myself doing it for another 18."
Encouraged by his sister, who is a registered nurse, and his wife, an occupational therapy assistant, Bearman decided to make the leap, both to Florida and to the health care field. He said he discussed the relocation with his father and sons, who remain in the Baltimore area, and he communicates with his boys almost daily by phone or computer.
He selected a nursing school in St. Petersburg and an apartment complex in Clearwater through the Internet. His wife landed a job in New Port Richey during their first visit to the area in the spring and Bearman, who had picked up a part-time job at Home Depot in Baltimore, got transferred to a St. Petersburg store, where he works 12 hours a week.
"I figured, worse come to worse, I can always go back to Baltimore and back to pipefitting," said Bearman, who made the move south in June. "But so far, everything's working according to game plan. I'm ready to get going."
Bearman knows he's fortunate to have a financial cushion while he makes his career change. In addition to the cash payout and six months of health insurance from his old employer, Bearman qualifies for assistance under the federal Trade Adjustment Act. That pays for extended unemployment benefits, tuition, books and uniforms. He started his studies early last month, part of a class of about 40 at the Health Institute of Tampa Bay on Fourth Street N. Sharon Roberts, director of the private school that has been offering LPN classes since 1990, said enrollment has ballooned over the past 18 months.
"There's more information about the nursing shortage and people see it as a stable field," said Roberts, whose school offers year-long training starting four times a year. "We've had burned-out teachers, CNAs (certified nursing assistants) who want to upgrade, and one guy from the forestry service. We get people from industries that are downsizing or petering out."
Tuition for the LPN course at the Health Institute is $11,900 plus about $700 for books, Roberts said. Her school competes with less expensive options at places such as Pinellas Technical Education Centers, but those generally have a lengthy waiting list for enrollment.
Roberts, who has had waiting lists for the past several sessions, said the LPN classes still attract mostly women, with only about 10 percent of the students male. Average age, she said, is late 20s, although she has had students as old as 65.
"The older students are more successful," she said. "At the beginning, it's that whole thing of re-establishing study habits, but within six weeks, they catch up. And once they learn it, they have it."
Though Bearman hadn't been in a classroom since high school, he wasn't too intimidated by the prospect of the three hours of homework nightly he was told to expect.
"I'm probably the oldest person in my class, but I know I can do it," he said.
Nor is he discouraged that at the end of a year of study, his pay as a practical nurse is likely to be anywhere from $16 to $20 an hour, less than he was making at the steel mill.
"For a long time, I always wanted to do something else, but I was trapped because of the time I'd invested in the job, my pension, my health care benefits, my family, my house," Bearman said. "I had to do what I had to do. Now I've been given a second chance."
