"Angry is not really the right word. I'm not really sure what the right word is to describe how I feel," Don Shaffer said Thursday as he grappled with the news that 500 employees of Werner Co. are going to lose their jobs.

The West Salem Township man said he has worked in the extrusion department of the Sugar Grove Township plant for nine years. In that process, hot aluminum runs through a press that forms the metal into shape for a ladder, an auto part or other uses, he said.

Shaffer said he may get to keep his job if the cuts are based on seniority but there are many people who aren't going to be so lucky -- including at least three men who are in the National Guard and have been called to active duty.

"They're out there fighting for the country and they're going to have no job to come home to," Shaffer said.

If he loses his job, Shaffer said, he will explore other options including job training programs that are available.

"There's going to be tumbleweed rolling down Main Street," said John McDowell, a nearly six-year employee of Werner.

Being 28, unmarried and childless makes him a rarity, compared to other Werner workers, he said.

"They have families and kids," he said. "One hundred thirty of those workers, easily, live in the Greenville borough. They're going to have to start over."

Casually dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, McDowell sat frustrated at a local watering hole. He concluded he probably has a better chance than other co-workers of landing on his feet since he doesn't have a family to support. If need be, returning to school will also be easier, he said, than for those with family obligations.

Shaffer is one of those with family obligations. He has a wife and three daughters -- ages 18, 14 and 6. He said his wife works but has always been on his health-care plan. If he loses his job, she's going to have to get health care through her job, he said.

"I have enough faith in God that he will take care of this for me. I have to have that faith now," Shaffer said. "God's brought me through worse things than this and he can bring me through this too.

Mike McCann, 41, of Hempfield Township also works to support a family. He said he's not sure if he, his wife and their 15-year-old daughter will have to leave the area, but it's a possibility. "My daughter has three more years of high school, and I want her to finish at her school," he said.

"The future is all I'm concerned about," he said.

As he spoke, McCann held a Werner Co. notice announcing the layoffs.

"They were in bargain talks but they wouldn't nail down the numbers. It was all maybes. And before we know it, people are being laid off" he said.

He wasn't shocked by the layoffs. He said he expected them; everybody did.

The news did come as a shock to Opal Baird of Atlantic. Her late husband worked there for 40 years before retiring in 1992; her father worked there in the '50s; her brother worked there for 44 years and retired only a few years ago; and for a short time, her niece was also employed there.

"It's going to be sad. I don't know if our congressmen or senators can do something, maybe their hands are tied."

She said back when her husband and brother were there, it was a requirement they work seven days a week. But the times are definitely changing, she said. "It's getting toward the end of time. Everything is going."

Before losing his job in February, McDowell put in what he called rough hours at Werner, doing extrusion work for $16 an hour. Now he's getting unemployment compensation and has a mortgage to pay. He blames NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, for his job loss.

"It was NAFTA that screwed us out of our jobs. It's cheaper to make a product out of the country than here," he said.

"I resent the fact that they're (Werner officials) trying to blame me because of the amount of money that I make, when it feels more like I'm the victim in this," Shaffer said. "This isn't a company that's not making a go of things. This is a company that's making literally millions of dollars a year.

"There are things driving this demon ... this has nothing to do with the steel crisis. This is about corporate greed and how much is enough. It's never enough."

Shaffer said part of him doesn't blame the company for moving to locations where the labor and health-care costs are much lower. He said health care is a big problem that's out of everyone's control.

The overall tone of the company has changed in the last decade, Shaffer said. He said company "bigwigs" used to meet with the employees and tell them that Werner was the "Cadillac of ladders" and people may pay a little more but they were going to get a quality product.

"That's gone from that to them saying today, 'What's the cheapest way we can make this ladder?' " Shaffer said. "It's not the little family-run business anymore."

"I'm glad for the people that will be left there because they get to keep their full pay. Let's not punish the people that are going to be left there," Shaffer said, adding he wonders how long the remaining employees will keep their jobs.

Under the Trade Readjustment Act, McDowell will return to college and is already looking at Penn State's Shenango Campus in Sharon. He said he wants to study something in the medical profession, a field that is always in need of workers.

McDowell predicted that one or two restaurants will have to close; people won't have the money to eat out. "We have to live on day-to-day means," he said.

The only landmarks that will be left in the area, he said, are Hodge Foundry, UPMC Horizon, Thiel College and St. Paul Homes.