Textile industry goes abroad but leaves hole: Small town lost 1,571 jobs in a day

The Cincinnati Enquirer ^ | December 6, 2003 | Greg Barrett

[sarcasm]

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. - The old mill town is searching for silver linings and grasping at threads.

When a textile factory in Kannapolis closed this summer, wiping out 1,571 jobs here in a single day, the laid-off workers felt a sense of panic.

City Manager Michael Mahaney, who in July had likened his town's jobless situation to an emergency room triage, predicted good things for Kannapolis a few months later. "People are maybe just going to have to start commuting" to Charlotte, he said.

Mahaney was describing the fate of textile towns all over the country. Despite a surge in manufacturing employment in November, economists say it's unlikely that Kannapolis-based Pillowtex and other factories will ever regain the market they have ceded to foreign manufacturers. Rural factory towns like Kannapolis will have no choice but to hitch their economies to the nearest big city.

"Charlotte is a financial center with lots of service jobs," Kannapolis Assistant City Manager Mike Legg said of the city 25 miles south. "The skill levels of our workers probably are not there for the financial jobs, but they would be for the service jobs."

In other words, people who once made towels and sheets at Pillowtex will instead serve people working in the nation's second-largest financial center.

If they work at all, they will likely be data processors, truck drivers, day-care providers, teachers, cooks and waiters. They will retrain themselves at the expense of the federal government - two years unemployment pay and free tuition are typical for people who lose a job because of imports or foreign labor. And they will serve the personal and professional needs of Charlotte's bankers, brokers and chief executives. The very idea sends a shudder through former Pillowtex mechanic Jessica Jackson. Three generations of Jacksons have lived and worked in Kannapolis, a town of 38,000.

"I'm staying right here, hon, one way or another," she said. "I ain't getting on the interstate and driving to Charlotte."

Economists say mass layoffs like the one that rocked Kannapolis in July are harbingers of what will happen in 2005 when U.S. quotas on textile imports completely disappear.

There's simply no place for $10- and $15-per-hour factory jobs in the streamlined business world. U.S. labor unions can't compete with the lower wages and overall lower costs of doing business in developing countries from South America to Asia.

Low-skill manufacturing jobs are being sacrificed for the good of domestic and foreign economies, for global diplomacy and, in the heady words of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, for "hemispheric prosperity."

Which means squat to the people sitting in a closed factory waiting to discuss their options with overworked career counselors.

"I was surprised by how many people I had been working next to who didn't have even a high school diploma. What are they going to do?" asked Pillowtex worker Herman Fisher.

Of the laid-off Kannapolis workers, one-third had a spouse who worked in the factory and also lost a job. Nearly half of the workers surveyed by the town were behind on their mortgage or rent payments, and one of 10 had received notices of foreclosure or eviction.

"These numbers will certainly grow as weeks pass," a city audit predicted.

The closing of Pillowtex, better known in the Carolinas as Fieldcrest Cannon, cost 7,650 people their jobs nationwide. It was one of the largest single-day layoffs in U.S. textile history.

[sarcasm]

Low-skill manufacturing jobs are being sacrificed for the good of domestic and foreign economies, for global diplomacy and, in the heady words of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, for "hemispheric prosperity."

[q_an_a]

these people are unhappy that a job paying 10 to 15 dollars an hour is being lost. When they are retrained and work in a hospital for 20 per hour, in two years, they will wonder what stopped them...maybe it was working without a high school deploma.

[Rebelbase]

"When they are retrained and work in a hospital for 20 per hour, in two years, they will wonder what stopped them...maybe it was working without a high school deploma."

Kannopolis has a hospital that needs 1571 new workers? I don't think so.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

This town should aggressively recruit companies to fill the space left by job losses.

[sarcasm]

And who pays for this retraining? Will the jobs still be paying $ 20.00 per hour after this influx of former factory workers?

[looscnnn]

"If they work at all, they will likely be data processors, truck drivers, day-care providers, teachers, cooks and waiters."

First off, I make a salary in that range because I work for the state. I could make more if I worked private sector, but there is too much competition.

Second, day-care providers, cooks, waiters and some teachers don't make that much.

[NMC EXP]

...in the heady words of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, for "hemispheric prosperity.

In my words "The hemispheric redistribution of wealth."

Regards

J.R.

[billbears]

When they are retrained and work in a hospital for 20 per hour, in two years, they will wonder what stopped them

Wow, really? I know the Kannapolis area and there aren't 1571 more jobs that pay $20 an hour. Let alone in surrounding hospitals. Tack this on to their fellow 5,000 workers that are also losing their jobs as Pillowtex closes down and the 2700 jobs that were just lost at RJR less than 50 miles up the road (thanks in large part to our illustrious Republican Senator's 'no-tax' tax plan on big tobacco).

Yep, going to be swimming in biotechnicians in that part of the state. Let's see Dole promised to write a letter calling for some defense against Chinese imports. Well though, that can't be right. She's already accepted $15,500 from Walmart. Hmmm, must be one of those 'local' campaign promises she probably will never follow up on....But then again she's taken $17,000 from RJR and has gladly thrown them under the bus. So who knows?

NC Ping!!

[Happy2BMe]

BUMPING for reference.

[billbears]

They will retrain themselves at the expense of the federal government - two years unemployment pay and free tuition are typical for people who lose a job because of imports or foreign labor. And they will serve the personal and professional needs of Charlotte's bankers, brokers and chief executives.

To tell the truth, it sounds sort of like what happened in Asheville over the past 20-30 years. The industry left, the tourists moved in, and many of the people that have lived there all their lives have ended up with jobs that in some way service the tourism trade or the people that live there half the year. Wonderful area, the whole economy has been depressed for years...

[Sir Gawain]

And then there are the witches.

[RobertM]

When these companies move over-sea's the best thing to do is not buy their products anymore.

[billbears]

Don't remind me.... lived there for seven years. Yes, working in a service industry job.

[FITZ]

When they are retrained and work in a hospital for 20 per hour, in two years, they will wonder what stopped them...

And who support their families, pay their mortgages, buys them health insurance while they go back and finish high school for 2 years and then the 4 years of college it will take for them to work in a hospital at $20 an hour? Even with 4 years of college, most would not make close to $20 an hour --- maybe $13 an hour. Plus who pays their way through college?

[FITZ]

The other problem with having only health care and jobs in educations ---- all those jobs are mostly funded from the government. In this area only 33% of the population has private insurance ---- all the rest get health care from the government. Health care jobs are available --- but paid by the government which means they are not wealth building jobs.

[ex-snook]

Isn't it sad what Washington does to our own citizens? The very citizens from the localities that staff the military to protect the foreign investments of international corporations.

Where the hell is the 'patriotism' for American workers? Why isn't this country ran for the benefit of Americans? Vote them out. Remember in November.

[lelio]

"I was surprised by how many people I had been working next to who didn't have even a high school diploma. What are they going to do?" asked Pillowtex worker Herman Fisher.

Here's what they are going to do:
a) go on government 'retraining' (that just sounds ominous) into biotech
b) move to the RTP area to try and get a biotech job which Bush and Dole promise will appear
c) realize that's only so much demand for those jobs
d) go on some government assistance program

Ain't globalism grand? I'm going to end up paying for their retraining and their eventual government assistance all because Robert Zoellick feels that we need cheap furniture from Egypt in the US.

Why is Robert the one-way trade rep?

[Rebelbase]

Re: Asheville,

I hear you. The influx of newcombers with wealth is causing a lot of problems for the locals. Rents are going skyhigh(compared to surrounding areas), The new service (tourist) jobs pay minimum wage, the Tech market is flooded with over qualified applicants and manufacturing is gone, moved or collapsing.

The two areas of employment that are prospering there are the Health Care industry (huge retirement population within a 30 mile radius) and Entreprenuers. If you have good service industry business idea you will probably be successful there.