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Posted on 10/14/2003 2:23:24 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
SALUDA, S.C. -- Textile maker Milliken and Co. says it will close two plants and cut roughly 240 jobs - a major blow to a textile stalwart that's been in the forefront of trying to protect the nation's textile industry.
The company said it will close plants in Saluda and Union and places the blame squarely on international trade with China.
"The lesson here is that no company is immune from the impact of China," Milliken spokesman Richard Dillard told The Greenville News for its online edition.
The Saluda plant closure will leave about 140 people without jobs and about 120 people will be without work at the Union plant.
The news has Union people "shocked," mayor Bruce Morgan. The county has seen it before - it once had seven Milliken plants.
About 140 people will be cut in Saluda, about a mile outside of town, where the texturing of yarn for various uses in apparel began to wind down Monday.
The plants, already cutting jobs, will close by the middle of next year, Dillard said.
Since the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect in 1993, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says nearly 700,000 textile and apparel jobs have been lost - nearly than half the industry total.
Dillard said the evaporation of those jobs is "the canary in the mine. We're the first red flag here, but if something is not done to stem free trade, job-devastating policies, other industries will follow."
NAFTA now has become less of an issue, Dillard says. In August, imports from China set a record and have surpassed imports from Mexico to become this nation's top apparel supplier, Dillard said.
Gov. Mark Sanford and state Commerce Secretary Bob Faith are heading to China this month to tell officials there that there's a political crisis brewing if it doesn't create reciprocal jobs in the U.S., and specifically South Carolina. At the same time, Sanford is pushing policies aimed at spending money on small business startups that will grow and remain loyal to the state.
"By the time we start creating all these new jobs ... we're going to be a third-world country ourselves," too impotent to compete in the global textile market. "We are not doing enough in the meantime to preserve" what remains of the textile and apparel industry in South Carolina, Dillard said.
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Or mail checks to or you can use PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com |
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STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER and say THANKS to Jim Robinson! |
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It's a nice feature.
I don't have to look at that spam,
and it saves some bandwidth which allows the page to load a little faster.
In the 2004 elections, this loss of jobs is going to be a BIG problem for incumbents.
At your service. You might know that already but other FReepers should: Willie uses FR to undermine the conservative views.
This post carries zero information, except the doom and gloom that this socialist thinks we don't get enough of from teh NY Times.
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