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

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

[LasVegasMac]

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

That won't happen until the taxpayers wakeup and quit voting for RATS and RINOs.

Don't hold your breath waiting for this to happen.

Government - gimme - Government - gimme - Government - gimme - Government - gimme.......

LVM

[IronJack]

Your bulldung about $60 per hour wages, stooge.

You're not only a union shill, you're illiterate as well. But I guess the two go hand in hand. If you don't have the brains to get a real job, join a union and get a feather bed somewhere.

If you don't understand the "$40 an hour" comment was hyperbole, you're not only illiterate, you're just plain obtuse.

Look for the union label, dolt. It's the one that says "Unemployed."

[Willie Green]

Some union workers like those at GM and other places did get ridiculous in their demands I think

I agree. But I also think the UAW enjoys a symbiotic relationship with management of the automotive oligopoly. Together, they squeeze the lifeblood out of both consumers AND their suppliers. I don't believe they'd be able to wield such clout if government had more stringent antitrust laws.
The CAW was way out of whack as well at that Navistar plant that is closing in Chatham Ontario. I can't blame Navistar for telling them to take a hike, but I don't think $4 an hour Mexican labor is in our national interest either.

Just the same, UAW or CAW union wages are the exception rather than the rule. I have little use for demagogues such as IronJack who imply that EVERY blue collar worker earns the excessive wages and benefits of the UAW. As far as their "conservative" credentials are concerned, their credibility is on a par with that clueless Cynthia Tucker at the Atlanta Constipation-Journal. Who the heck wants to be allied with a so-called "conservative" who can so easily be shown to be foolishly biased and disingenous on simple, straightforward facts?

[IronJack]

Its just that someone wanted the rights to the brand and did not want to actually run a factory.

Then don't buy the brand.

The fact is, the factory owner can produce shirts in Sri Lanka or Indonesia or Guatemala for pennies on the dollar under what it would cost to produce a shirt in the US. Why? The biggest variable has to be labor costs. Unless Americans are willing to pay $30 for a Hathaway shirt made in the USA, versus $10 for a similar shirt made in some jungle, the manufacturer has a pretty clear choice.

If the product is identical in quality, I'll buy the American product first, even if it is more expensive. Unless I feel the money is going to enrich some deadbeat garment worker who can't sew a straight button.

By the way, if these hardworking stiffs are making $15 an hour in pay, odds are they are getting somewhere close to that in benefits, making my $40 an hour figure less exaggerated than it sounds.

[Willie Green]

If you don't understand the "$40 an hour" comment was hyperbole, you're not only illiterate, you're just plain obtuse.

"Hyperbole" "disinformation" "propaganda" "bias"

I don't give a rat's patoot what you call it.
And it doesn't matter to me whether you claim to be a conservative or not.

Your "hyperbole" is simple disrespect for facts and substance

IMHO, you're as worthless as that clueless Cynthia Tucker at the Atlanta Constipation-Journal.
Or that stooge Cramer on CNBC's Kudlow and Cramer...
(That worthless boob oughta go back to anouncing professional wrestling)

[IronJack]

To set the record straight, I did not say that the factory workers in Maine were making $40 an hour. I said that it would be difficult for anyone to make a profit selling shirts if they were paying their workers $40 an hour not to show up for work. I stand by that statement. Does anyone want to truly contest the fact that it WOULD be difficult to make a profit under those conditions???!!!

Now, admittedly, it might be easier to make a profit paying $15 an hour if employees occasionally showed up for work. But it wouldn't be as easy as making a profit if you were paying $5 an hour and everyone showed up every day. Again, would anyone argue that fact??

My point is that as labor costs go up, it can surely come as no surprise that profits decline, and that in the face of declining profits, investors seek other manufacturing venues. Since labor costs historically go up where unions are present, voting a union in is tantamount to declaring war on profit. The shortsighted money-grabs that unions promote, along with the labor strife and violence, do not anticipate the disgust of an owner who would rather close his factory down than sanction such coercion.

[IronJack]

Your Jack Daniels runneth over.

[FITZ]

but I don't think $4 an hour Mexican labor is in our national interest either.

Not many Mexicans make $4 an hour unless they're making it in the US. More like $6 a day.

[FITZ]

My point is that as labor costs go up, it can surely come as no surprise that profits decline,

Except when you look at better paid laborers = more potential customers. NAFTA sends all these jobs to Mexico where they pay $30 a week but that $30 doesn't allow for them to purchase much past a very small apartment and basic food.

[Willie Green]

No, haven't touched a drop.
But thanks for reminding me...
I forgot it was Friday evening...
Maybe I'll crack open a cold beer and relax...
It'll take my mind off that dipwad Cramer...
Can't stand that abrasive loudmouth, obnoxious SOB..
He makes me want to gather my dirty socks out of the laundry and stuff 'em in his mouth.

[FITZ]

But I also think the UAW enjoys a symbiotic relationship with management of the automotive oligopoly.

I know many garment industries moved to Texas which isn't much of a union state ---it didn't save the workers' jobs here that they didn't belong to unions and were usually glad enough to make less than $10 ---many made $6 an hour. The jobs are gone from here too.

[Joe Hadenuf]

These major companies and corporations have zero allegiance to our country or the American people.

Nonsense. Should they lose money by selling shirts that nobody buys because they're too expensive?>

And so went the way of American manufacturing, for the big dollars, as the folks at home, in America, struggle to work at Wal-Mart for $7.00 bucks an hour, as Mom and Dads wages shrink down the path of servitude.

[sinkspur]

And so went the way of American manufacturing, for the big dollars, as the folks at home, in America, struggle to work at Wal-Mart for $7.00 bucks an hour, as Mom and Dads wages shrink down the path of servitude.

You look at American manufacturers as if they exist solely to provide high paying jobs. Kind of a socialist viewpoint, Joe.

You live in California, one of the most inhospitable states to business in the country. Maybe you ought to work to reduce burdensome regulations so that more manufacturers could afford to remain in the US.

[FITZ]

You look at American manufacturers as if they exist solely to provide high paying jobs.

Not only high paying jobs so the employees can pay their high property taxes and sales taxes and all the other taxes, but the businesses themselves pay very high taxes. Where will the money for our government come from when all the businesses and jobs leave? Will social programs for our so-called poor get cut ---and if so then what happens?

[The Red Zone]

Ruddock Shirts, El Paso, Texas (yeeeeeee haw!)

[IronJack]

Although I understand your point, my guess is that the workers in this plant weren't buying a lot of dress shirts. I've never been much of a believer in demand-side economics. I fancy the top-down approach myself. It's the only way capital can be created rather than reshuffled.

[mississippi red-neck]

The paper companies are the last big industries to feel saleout of our industries to cheap overseas labor. The International plant and Scott paper plant in Mobile, Ala. each employed about 4200 people each in the 70's all very good jobs with excellent benefits and wages.

I had 32 years with Scott which was bought out by Kimberly-Clark. The IP plant shut down completely about a year ago.The Scott, now Kimberly-Clark, shut down all of the plant but the tissue mill, and sold off all of it's timberlands and operations which leaves about 700 workers at the plant.

This happened when we opened the pulp and paper market to Red China about 8 years ago. You can't compete with slave labor and big business with no patriotic sense of duty. These are the jobs that allowed one of the parents to stay at home with the children. There is no such thing as "free trade".

[LowOiL]

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.

H.R. 1589 was introduced by Congresswoman Sue Myrick (R-NC) on April 25, 2001. This legislation seeks to amend the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act to provide trade benefits for socks and hosiery. Currently, H.R. 1589 has been referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. I believe that any new legislation in this area must not create any further competitive disadvantage for United States businesses and workers. You may rest assured that I will not support legislation that results in the loss of more textile jobs in Alabama.

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Your congresslady is killing us here in Fort Payne Alabama with her bonehead attempt to push the last of the sock business overseas. Our two republican senators Shelby and Sessions are on their last leg trying to hold up this bill by holding a trade agreement with Turkey up that Cheney wants signed and not signing it untill that take your crazy congressladies export off it. She will kill this town and fast sending jobs overseas in a split second. This is a non union town with 7-12 an hour jobs. Fort Payne (sock capital of the world population around 14,000) has fought tooth and nail to keep its business here and poured alot of money in the toe closer (ending the seaming dept completely) machine (called lin-toe device). She must have powerful allies, cause it is within inches of being passed right now. To hell with us Alabamians. If you get close to her, give Myrick a good swift kick in the butt from me and know it ain't half the kick I would give her.

Low OiL

[Rebelbase]

VF announced plant closings in OK, Va and MO yesterday, also.

[Willie Green]

Maybe you ought to work to reduce burdensome regulations so that more manufacturers could afford to remain in the US.

If the GOP represented that position, I'd be posting "Go Dubya Go!!!"

Sadly, the RINO leadership largely abandoned that position to facilitate the profitability of transnational financial institutions, sacrificing our economic stability and national security in the process. In that respect, I consider them to be just as treachorous to our nation's vital manufacturing infrastructure as Klintoon or Ozone Algore.