One reason nobody is talking about layoffs at the Fuji single-use camera plant is that there are so few people there in the first place.

While about 500 people were needed to keep Kodak's plant in Rochester operating around the clock seven days a week, the head count at the Fuji plant, which also never closes, is about 170.

A visit to the plant shows why: It seems almost deserted.

"No human hands touch these cameras from the time the plastic is molded until they're wrapped and packed for shipment,'' said White, the Fuji spokesman.

"We prefer to invest in people rather than machines,'' Kodak's Brown said, when asked why Kodak didn't go the heavy-automation route.

Those touring the Fuji plant have to be careful to avoid miniature train-like devices that shuttle parts from bins to machines and from one machine to another. What starts out as raw plastic — most of it retrieved from cameras that have been returned for recycling — and pre-made parts, such as the flash, move from one line to another in the 150,000-square-foot plant until they're ready to be shipped.

There are 35 or so "associates" at strategic points in the plant around the clock, mostly monitoring the machines, repairing them and making sure they're supplied with raw materials and parts. They make between $27,000 and $32,000 a year — good salaries by standards in that area.

One such associate is Kyle Neal, 35, an 11-year Fuji veteran who inspects the flash attachments Fuji buys to put on the cameras. He also repairs machines.

Like most of the other Fuji workers, Neal works an unusual two-week schedule: three 12-hour days, from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., then two off; two 12-hour nights, from 7:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m., then three off; two days on, two days off. Then the reverse of days and nights for the next two weeks.

Neal, who is married and has two children, 7 and almost 2, said he gets by on five hours of sleep.

"The only bad part is working nights and being away from my family,'' he said. On the other hand, "If I want to take off for a few days, I can.''

Donna Brooks, 34, another Fuji worker, keeps tabs on the machines that mold plastic.

"It's a long day,'' she said. On the other hand, with a 12-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son, her schedule allows her to do some volunteer work at her children's school.

"Is the work demanding? Yes,'' said Peter Arnoti, head of the Greenwood Alliance, an economic-development group, and the key figure in luring Fuji to the area. "It's not all hunky-dory. It's not a punch-in, punch-out work environment.''

Allison McAlaster, 28, a mother of two children, 10 and 6, and a Fuji plastic-molding technician, would agree with that.

"I came from working in a doctor's office, so the night shift was really rough on me in the beginning,'' she said.

But she has a steady paycheck, good benefits and grandparents who watch her kids while she's at work.

"I feel very lucky,'' she said.

© 2004, Gannett News Service