Nation's last major shirt plant closes, production moves overseas

AP via Boston.com ^ | 10/18/2002 15:49 | David Sharp

[ozone1]

WATERVILLE, Maine (AP) A last-ditch attempt to save the nation's last major shirt manufacturing plant ran out of steam as sewing machines came to a halt Friday at the plant whose shirts were made world-famous by the man-with-an-eyepatch logo.

C.F. Hathaway, which has been making shirts in Maine for 165 years, will go the way of Arrow and Van Heusen, once strong competitors whose shirts are now being made overseas.

[ozone1]

"The closing is putting 235 people out of work." competing with the Somali for assistance.

There are no jobs in Maine.

"Hathaway follows a growing number of apparel and shoe companies that have moved production overseas.

Those include G.H. Bass and Cole Haan, which shut down their Maine shoe factories in 1998 and 1999. The Dexter shoe plant also closed late last year, putting 475 people out of work. "

Let's See 8.5% income tax, 5%(and rising) sales tax, High property tax, equipment (personal property) tax, Why would anyone stay in Maine?

[SheLion]

Let's See 8.5% income tax, 5%(and rising) sales tax, High property tax, equipment (personal property) tax, Why would anyone stay in Maine?

`sigh...........why indeed............

[daviddennis]

From what I remember, it's a beautiful place, but I still remember the chilly summers. I've never experienced a Maine winter, and judging by your summers, I hope I never will.

I moved from Massachusetts to Southern California. Sounds like your taxes are about as lousy as ours are, but at least it's warm over here. Unfortunately, the warm climate seems to really attract the governmental nutballs :-(.

(If my memory serves, our coldest winter days are roughly the same temperature as your summers - daytime highs go as low as the 50s here).

D

[ozone1]

There has got to be a point when the RATS (and RINOS)wake up and realize the payers are leaving at a faster rate than they can increase taxes

[ozone1]

Per dollar earned our taxes are higher, but per capita I think yours are highr, but I'll trade the weather anyday.

[Batrachian]

Ah, the joys of free trade. You know, maybe Dukakis was right. Maybe we are turning into a nation of hamburger flippers.

[Drango]

Closing of the Nation is a great thing. It's always been a Commie magazine. Bunch of socialist hacks and journalist wanna bes.I can't read much of their liberal swill.

bummer about the shirt thing...

[ozone1]

I stopped in there Wednesday. The shirts in the outlet store are down to 5.99,7.99 and 9.99

[SheLion]

There has got to be a point when the RATS (and RINOS)wake up and realize the payers are leaving at a faster rate than they can increase taxes

Did you see this article as well, ozone?

International Paper cutting 80 jobs Bucksport, Maine

[SheLion]

but I'll trade the weather anyday

Well, we had a pretty hot summer this year. Broke a record: 96 degrees. I can't take that heat. This cooler weather is for me!

[ozone1]

"Maybe we are turning into a nation of hamburger flippers."

Some people aren't even qualified to do this, it requires some computer skills.

[SheLion]

The shirts in the outlet store are down to 5.99,7.99 and 9.99

Goodness! That means they are dead serious about getting the 'ell out of Maine........

Another empty building for the rats to roam...........

[ozone1]

"International Paper cutting 80 jobs Bucksport, Maine"

The most of the forests in Maine really have another 30 years to go before they are mature.

[FITZ]

80 jobs, 235 jobs ---try this:

VF to lay off 1,200 in El Paso

Vic Kolenc
El Paso Times Oct 18, 2002


El Paso's disappearing garment industry has been hit with another blow.

VF Jeanswear, maker of Lee and Wrangler jeans, will close two of its six El Paso plants in December and May and lay off about 1,200 workers, the company announced Thursday.

VF laid off just more than 1,000 El Paso workers late last year and early this year in a cost-cutting move. Most of the layoffs were from the two plants now being closed.

"I feel terrible," Anita Sanchez, who worked 19 years for VF, said Thursday afternoon as she left the VF plant at 9624 Plaza Circle in the Lower Valley. The plant, with about 750 employees, is scheduled to close in May. "I don't have any plans at this point. I may be able to go to school."

A plant at 12380 Pine Springs in far East El Paso that employs about 450 people is scheduled to close in December.

Weak jeans sales this year and expected slow sales next year led the jeans maker once again to cut its work force in the United States and shift more production to VF's lower-cost factories in Mexico, Honduras and Costa Rica, said Sam Tucker, vice president of human resources for VF Jeanswear. It's a subsidiary of VF Corp., which bills itself as the world's largest apparel company. Both companies are based in Greensboro, N.C.

"We have more (production) capacity than we need, and when that happens in today's (economic) climate, you have to look" at shifting production away from the highest-cost plants, Tucker said.

VF pays an average wage of $10.01 an hour in El Paso, Tucker said.

VF's employment in El Paso will drop to about 1,800 people after the layoffs, Tucker said. The company had employed just more than 5,000 people before its layoffs late last year. VF is also closing five plants in Oklahoma, Virginia and

Missouri and laying off about 1,900 people at those plants, Tucker said.

VF Jeanswear's plants-closing announcement came the same day that VF Corp. announced record third-quarter profits of $128.2 million -- an almost 25 percent increase from a year ago. The corporation posted a $231.1 million loss for the first nine months of the year. However, the loss was due to a change in accounting policy related to past acquisitions, VF Corp. spokeswoman Cindy Knoebel said. Without the change, VF would have posted a $296.1 million profit for the nine months, VF reported.

Tucker said the jeans division was "not a big contributor to what was a big quarter for VF Corporation." The company does not release sales figures for individual business lines but reported that the company's domestic jeans business posted "low single-digit sales declines" in the third quarter (July through September). Corporatewide sales were essentially flat in the third quarter at $1.4 billion and declined 5.3 percent to $3.7 billion in the first nine months of the year, VF reported.

After the VF layoffs, El Paso's garment industry employment will drop below 7,000 people, according to Texas Workforce Commission data at the end of last year combined with some major layoffs this year. The industry employed 21,781 people at the end of 1993, according to state data.

Levi Strauss & Co. last month closed its last El Paso plant, laying off 780 workers.

Tucker said VF will give laid-off workers severance pay of $110 for each year of employment -- an amount that brought criticism during VF's previous El Paso layoffs.

"The severance is totally insufficient," said Guillermo Glenn, an advocate for laid-off garment workers. He questioned why "the largest garment maker in the world cannot offer more of a just benefit package."

El Paso Mayor Ray Caballero Thursday issued a statement calling on VF to offer a generous severance package and job transition funds to laid-off workers.

Tucker said, "We (VF) tried to put together the best (severance) package we could offer."

Tom Fullerton, an economist at the University of Texas at El Paso, estimated that the VF layoffs would result in a $50 million income loss in El Paso over a 12-month period. He based that on the income loss of 1,200 VF workers with an average wage of $10.01 an hour, combined with a "ripple effect" of other jobs lost at VF suppliers and other businesses that sell products to the plants' workers.

[Principled]

He said it's difficult for a U.S. manufacturer to compete in a global economy when products can be made elsewhere at vastly lower wages.

And don't forget those pesky income taxes and costs of compliance that add 20-40% to the price of everything.

He said consumers are interested in the lowest-priced shirt, not where it's made.

He's right. The only people who don't get this are the politicians who refuse to do something about the tax system that is in large part responsible for the inflated prices on US made goods.

[glc1173@aol.com]

"Let's See 8.5% income tax, 5%(and rising) sales tax, High property tax, equipment (personal property) tax, Why would anyone stay in Maine?"

The textile industry hasn't stayed here in low-tax, low-wage North Carolina either. Instead, it has moved production to the Third World. That's what "free trade" means.

The "John Saxon" essays - by an angry blue-collar Southerner, for people like him!

[Principled]

Take a look, Action. Yet more evidence of wealth and jobs leaving our shores for greener pastures.

[ozone1]

Yup, It had a for sale/lease sign in front. It's sad because these were good jobs. Decent wage, benefits retirement etc.

And there's nothing to replace it.

The prices of housing in Waterville is actually going down, especially since Scott paper closed. I know a real estate guy who is specializing in near foreclosures. Some people are just abandoning their place and turning over the deed to the bank.

[SheLion]

The most of the forests in Maine really have another 30 years to go before they are mature.

I KNOW it! You should see the wilderness up here. Trees Trees Trees everywhere!

[SheLion]

FITZ! Then why the 'ell is the Government telling us our economy is so good? We hear all the time about closings and lay-offs. Now! How can that make for a good economy?!