Posted on 02/21/2002 3:04:44 AM PST by Captain Shady
ENOREE — Folks like Lynn Bevill were exactly who Gov. Jim Hodges was looking for when he arrived at Inman Mills’ Ramey Plant in Enoree Wednesday morning.
The governor interrupted the Woodruff resident and four of her co-workers in their break room to get feedback on the state of the textile industry from the perspective of the trenches.
Hodges pulled up a chair and casually joined them at the table.
Bevill wasn’t awestruck or intimidated.
As her co-workers and supervisors watched, the weaver faced off one-on-one with the governor for almost 10 minutes.
“We’ve got to keep our people working,” the third-generation textile worker said, never breaking eye contact with the governor.
Hodges agreed with her.
“At the end of the day, if we (Americans) can’t make anything, we’re in sad shape,” he replied.
Bevill wanted to know what she and her co-workers could do to help the situation. “We are trying to make the best quality product here,” she pleaded. “What can we do? We’re well-trained people. We’re not a bunch of idiots.”
Bevill has seen friends and family laid off and continues to watch them struggle.
“It used to be if you couldn’t find a job, you found one in textiles,” she said.
“I think the key is letting everyone know the plight of the textile industry,” he said.
It’s an industry with 11,000 fewer jobs in South Carolina now than a year ago. And that’s a key reason why Hodges made the trip and toured the facility.
“He wanted to get (the employees’) perspective on our industry, the economy and what they’re thinking and feeling from a constituent standpoint,” said Brad Burnett, Ramey’s plant manager.
Bevill wasn’t shy about letting Hodges know her perspective on the political reality of the industry’s situation.
“When I vote,” she said sternly, “anybody who’s going to hurt me, I’m not voting for.”
Which prompts a question: With hundreds of Upstate workers laid off in the past year, did the governor’s visit come too late?
“Hindsight’s always 20-20,” Burnett said. “There’s still a lot of us around, and we want to stay around for a long time to come.”
Burnett knows the industry needs help from the governor and from state and national lawmakers to make saving additional jobs a reality.
“Every day, you read articles about helping China and helping Pakistan,” he said. “I’m not opposed to doing that, but I am opposed to giving our manufacturing base away to do so. We hope that message will be taken from South Carolina to Washington whenever the governor meets with the president.”
Hodges said a lot of what needs to be done relates to trade policy.
“It’s textiles now, and it’s going to be other manufacturing later,” he said. “That’s what worries me. We’ve got to protect our manufacturing base with textiles and other products as well.”
The situation, however, is largely a federal issue.
“But part of what governors do is use the bully pulpit to bring economic concerns to the forefront,” Hodges said. “I and the other Southern governors can bring these issues front and center to our national policy makers.”
Hodges worries if the textile industry’s bleeding isn’t clotted, not only will it continue to lose jobs, but other manufacturing jobs might suffer as well.
“We’ve got to be able to make things in our nation,” he said. “We can’t be entirely a service country, and that’s where we’re headed if we don’t do something to protect manufacturing.”
And if that happens, what fate is in store for Bevill and others like her?
“None of us are going to be old enough to retire, so what are we going to be able to do?” she asked. “Sit back and draw unemployment?”
Speaking as a former "linthead"...I have to disagree. It was my experience that the owners had very little to do with day to day factory business. For the most part, they were well meaning, and fair people. The workers were well meaning and fair people. It was the middle men...the men who were hired to run these factories who ruined the industry. Their incompetence was breathtaking. Some of the mills I worked in seemed so cost ineffecient, I wondered if they were merely a front for something else!
My co-workers used to nag me all the time...telling me that I should write a book about textiles and the unsung lintheads. Now if I could only find a ghostwriter....
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