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Levi Strauss Plant Closes; Hundreds Lose Jobs
KATV ^ | Tuesday March 07, 2006 | Rusty Jackson

Posted on 03/08/2006 9:19:50 AM PST by Willie Green

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.

Little Rock - Hundreds of people are out of work Tuesday night after a major announcement at the Levi Strauss company. The company's Little Rock distribution plant will be closing its doors as early as August. The move will put 340 people out of work. The plant is located just south of Little Rock off Interstate 530 along the Pratt Road Exit.

Levi Strauss closed down the plant because company officials said it already has three major distribution plants in North America and this one was no longer necessary. Little rock native, Mary Bleck, has worked at the plant for nearly 30 years, and she found out Monday during a managers meeting she would no longer have a job. She says her initial reaction was shock.

(Mary Bleck, worker) Because I thought we were prospering with all the work we had been doing and really was just initially shocked..."

Tuesday morning at 8:00, the rest of the workers got the news of the closing.

(E.J. Bernacki, Levi Strauss) "They've done great work. This is not a reflection on them at all. It's really just a matter of business conditions and our network being over capacity."

Bernacki said the workers will receive a competitive severance package, but that still doesn't take away the sting of losing a job you've had most your life.

(Bleck) "It's sad they are leaving. Thirty years is a long time to work for a company. Now here you're thinking about having to start all over again..."

Mary Bleck is only one of many who will have to start over.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; US: Arkansas
KEYWORDS: bluejeans; bringbackcarter; cafta; corporatism; depression; globalism; grapesofwrath; itsoveritsover; killmenow; levis; levistrauss; littlerock; manufacturing; nafta; stagflation; suicidesolution; textiles; thebusheconomy; willielogic
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To: eyedigress
Not lead based I hope! :)

It took me a second to process that - oh yeah, my tagline!

I'm still using the last of an old roll of 60/40 Kester solder. Yep, the lead stuff, but I observe the "safe" practices I learned back when I got my level D card at the Navy's micro-miniature component repair school. Let's hope that the slow turning of mental gears in response to your post isn't the result of all those solder fumes I've breathed over the years. ;-) (Those fumes are more likely rosin than lead, I'll bet)

Ah well, as Joycelyn Elders once so eloquently put it - "We're all gonna die from sumthin'"!

61 posted on 03/08/2006 10:30:23 AM PST by Denver Ditdat (Melting solder since 1975)
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To: RS

Worse than that, even. I noticed (sample size = 1) a marked decrease in Levi Stauss' quality as much as ten years ago . . . probably because some bean-counter determined that it could save a few pennies on crappy imported material.


62 posted on 03/08/2006 10:31:11 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: xarmydog

Typical leftist hypocrites!

http://www.buyblue.org/node/1314/view/summary


63 posted on 03/08/2006 10:32:38 AM PST by JZelle
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To: printhead

and dont forget to remind everyone of Levis anti-gun alliance with PAX.


64 posted on 03/08/2006 10:32:45 AM PST by gnarledmaw (I traded freedom for security and all I got were these damned shackles.)
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To: Willie Green; All
Levi Strauss Is suppled by at least 500 factories around the world not just Mexico.
65 posted on 03/08/2006 10:33:14 AM PST by jec41 (Screaming Eagle)
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To: Rakkasan1

I switched to Carhartts as well. They still make some of their jeans in the US. You have to check the tag on the inside, because some are made in Mexico, but as far I know one of the only companies that still makes jeans in the US.

It's too bad, because Levis were cool jeans, and they were synonymous with America in other parts of the world. What's more American than a pair of blue jeans? Teenagers in Russia would sell their mothers for a pair of American jeans during the 80s.


66 posted on 03/08/2006 10:37:19 AM PST by Boris99
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To: discostu

I don't think it was Wal Mart's fault either. Wal Mart has developed a different way to move merchandise and it doesn't need to pay for 300 plus employees sending out their products from a dispatch center. Once less step in the supply chain should reduce the cost of blue jeans.


67 posted on 03/08/2006 10:38:25 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (BTUs are my Beat.)
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To: FreeManWhoCan

I personally don't hate Levi's. I just prefer Diesel and Armani.


68 posted on 03/08/2006 10:38:57 AM PST by Potowmack ("Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government")
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To: Willie Green

A few years ago Levi Strauss posted a link on their web site to some anti 2nd amendment groups. Although, I'd worn Levi jeans for years I changed brands on principle.

I don't know if it made a difference. I don't know if it is co-incidental but I did the same with K-Mart.


69 posted on 03/08/2006 10:46:21 AM PST by Roux
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To: McGavin999; 1rudeboy

Thanks guys. What you say makes sense.


70 posted on 03/08/2006 10:47:23 AM PST by uncitizen
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To: Petronski

bttt


71 posted on 03/08/2006 10:47:42 AM PST by stainlessbanner
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To: 1rudeboy

"...probably because some bean-counter determined that it could save a few pennies on crappy imported material."

Think it was a LOT more then a few pennies, might have even been enough to cover the increased health care and retirement costs that American workers demanded until that got too much and their jobs went overseas.

... and people wonder why most of the cars in the parking lots are not made in Detroit anymore ...


72 posted on 03/08/2006 10:51:22 AM PST by RS ("I took the drugs because I liked them and I found excuses to take them, so I'm not weaseling.")
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To: Willie Green

Levi's has been losing market-share for years, mostly because of increased competition from boutique brands at the high-end and bargain brands at the low end, which are sold out of superstores like Target and TJ Maxx. They're also historically slow to respond to changing fashion trends--like the whole baggy-pants thing a few years back. The closing of the Arkansas distribution center is a cost-cutting measure designed to eliminate redundancy in the supply-chain, and is most likely directly linked to the Wal-Mart deal.


73 posted on 03/08/2006 10:51:45 AM PST by polecat pete
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To: Roux

Yep, so now do you buy your jeans from those good 'ole boy pro-gun jeans makers in China or Thailand ?


74 posted on 03/08/2006 10:53:49 AM PST by RS ("I took the drugs because I liked them and I found excuses to take them, so I'm not weaseling.")
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To: Denver Ditdat

Was that in Millington? I'm an old flyboy from the GBGR somewhere near Crater Range. Did you remember those percentages or have to look? Thanks for your service.
(It will probably be bird flu from a feral cat!)


75 posted on 03/08/2006 11:01:50 AM PST by eyedigress
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To: eyedigress
I went to Micro-Mini school at NAS Cecil Field in Jacksonville, but was stationed in Millington for Avionics 'A' school and AFTA in 1979-80. Is NATTC Millington still there, or has everything been shut down now? Last I heard all the tech schools were going to be moved to Pensacola.

Yep, 60/40 is one of those numbers engraved on my brain cells. I think the ratio is 63/37 now, though.

If Her Heinous wins elective office for anything higher than US Senator, it will probably be from stroke. =8-0

76 posted on 03/08/2006 11:12:49 AM PST by Denver Ditdat (Melting solder since 1975)
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To: polecat pete

I wonder if Levis is selling more pants now that Wal Mart sells em ?


77 posted on 03/08/2006 11:15:32 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (BTUs are my Beat.)
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To: Denver Ditdat
I believe it is, (Navy A School) but not known to what capacity. Here's Crater Range.
78 posted on 03/08/2006 11:21:14 AM PST by eyedigress
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

Apparently it's the only thing keep Levi's afloat. It's also good for WM; they're trying to draw "middle-end" shoppers away from Target.


79 posted on 03/08/2006 11:23:44 AM PST by polecat pete
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To: polecat pete

What happens when Wal Mart wants to pay $1/pair less for Levis ?


80 posted on 03/08/2006 11:25:41 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (BTUs are my Beat.)
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