Photo by Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

Barack Obama meets the audience after his speech at the Virginia Motorsports Technology Center at Patrick Henry Community College in Martinsville.

MARTINSVILLE -- Brian McGhee is waiting on a change.

He's looking for a change in laws that allow manufacturing companies to send jobs overseas.

He's looking for a change in the lack of resources available to laid-off workers.

Laid off from Smurfit-Stone Container a little more than a month ago, McGhee still hasn't been able to find another job.

"I'm looking hard," said McGhee, who worked at Smurfit for a year. "I'm not just la-di-da-ing around. I don't want a handout. All I want is the opportunity to work."

So was the attitude of many Martinsville residents invited to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's town hall meeting Wednesday.

McGhee introduced Obama and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner to the crowd of about 300 people in the Virginia Motorsports Technology Center at Patrick Henry Community College.

"I'm not up here to complain," he told the audience, some of whom have also been sent to the unemployment line lately. "All I want is for the government to stop hurting us. The American worker can compete with anyone, but not 50-cent wages and child labor."

Like at most of his events, Obama's audience was a mix of young and old, black and white, employed and unemployed.

Obama's message of keeping jobs on U.S. soil and getting rid of tax incentives for companies who chose to go elsewhere hit home in Martinsville, where the manufacturing industry was once booming but has been hit as hard by layoffs as any other area in Virginia over the past decade.

"There was a time when furniture and textile companies of the world were here," said Antonio Brimmer, president of the Local 695 of the United Steelworkers. "People would come down here for jobs. There's nothing here now."

Martinsville's approach to economic development is "if you build it they will come," Brimmer said of the potential plant sites that sit empty around the city. "But no, they won't, because China's building them for dirt cheap."

While Obama said he couldn't promise jobs will come back to Martinsville if he's elected, he did say he'd work to find a solution and keep the issue, and the residents, on his mind.

"We have to change how America does business," Obama said.

James Wilson is still employed at Smurfit-Stone -- which makes boxes and packages equipment -- but his family hasn't been as fortunate.

His six older siblings also worked in manufacturing positions around the area, including DuPont, and have been laid off.

Some have had to move away from Martinsville, but all have found new jobs after some retraining.

"But I'm 48 and they're older than me," Wilson said. "It's tough to learn a new skill."

Some consider Wilson's family lucky to have had the opportunity for retraining.

Brimmer said he strives constantly to find work and training for out-of-work union members in Martinsville, but choices are limited.

"It's so frustrating," he said.

Brimmer agrees that manufacturing jobs need to remain in the country, but that a bigger problem right now is finding services, benefits and training for workers who have been laid off. He said he believes there's a need for more job fairs in the area, educational opportunities and assistance to learn a new trade or skill. He also mentioned getting laid-off workers more affordable health care while they look for a new job.

Overall, Brimmer and McGhee said they thought Obama's visit was a positive one, a sign that the area, its high unemployment rate and the struggling economy aren't forgotten.

"We've just got to do something about this," McGhee said. "Something's got to change."