I wonder if these Savannah workers see the benefits of Free Trade? Brackets are mine. After every sentence, repeat "Global Competition means 'Who will work the cheapest?', [chorus] 'Ain't Free Trade Great?'."
http://www.savannahmorningnews.com/ns-search/smn/stories/120499/LOCplant.shtml?NS-search-set=/384f1/aaaa192304f132a&NS-doc-offset=0&
Web posted Saturday, December 4, 1999
Plant closing will cost 400 jobs
Apparel factory is one of Tattnall County's largest employers.
By Caitlin Cleary
Savannah Morning News
Nearly 400 factory workers will lose their jobs when the Ithaca manufacturing plant in Glennville goes dark Feb. 11, in the latest of 13 Ithaca apparel plant closings since 1995.
The announcement came Monday: Ithaca Industries Inc., one of the biggest employers in Tattnall County, will close its doors and lay off its workers to cut costs.
For the last 12 years, workers at the Glennville plant made T-shirts, undershirts, and men's and women's underwear on the factory floor, earning an average of $7 an hour. Jan. 28 will begin the "phase-out" process, which will gradually pare down the work force to minimum levels by mid-February.
The reasons for the Glennville plant closure are neither new nor unique.
"Ithaca is trying to stay cost-competitive," said Jeff Gordon, the Georgia human resources manager for Ithaca Industries. "It is not a reflection on the quality or quantity of the work. It is simply a cost reduction measure in the cost-competitive market where we find ourselves."
Glennville's Ithaca plant is the latest in a long line of textile and apparel plants to close around the region. The textile industry in the Southeast has been hit hard by 1994's North American Free Trade Agreement. Trade barriers with Canada and Mexico were lifted; restrictions on foreign investments and services were eased. The cheap labor and relaxed environmental laws drew companies out of the country, and the jobs followed.
In its closure announcement, Ithaca Industries states that cutting costs and being more cost-competitive with offshore manufacturers "will ensure Ithaca's ability to provide long-term support to the communities in which it continues to operate." [. . . as in the next sentence]
Chigbo Ofong, an associate professor of management at Savannah State University who has documented job losses related to NAFTA, warned that closing the plant will help Ithaca's other domestic plants only for the short term.
"This problem will catch up with them," Ofong said. "The temptation to move to Mexico or some other country, it's a trend that cannot be stopped. Either they'll move or they'll go under sooner or later."
Apparel workers in Mexico typically make about $2 an hour, Ofong said.
The workers at Ithaca were not unionized, Gordon said. Employees were given 60 days' notice and the possibility of a transfer to another plant. There are plans for a job fair. But workers will not get severance, Gordon said.
Once, Tattnall County, population 17,000, was home to five apparel factories, providing 850 jobs. Now there is one operation and 50 apparel jobs, said John Cheney, executive director of the Tattnall County Development Authority. Unemployment hovers around 6 percent.
"There is never a good time to lose your job," Cheney said. "But it seems these announcements continuously come at the end of the year, at Christmastime."
The Ithaca closure is the second blow the county is trying to absorb. Dec. 18, 1998, was the last day for Tam Industries, a specialty apparel operation that was knocked out by foreign competition, Cheney said. About 300 workers lost their jobs then.
Cheney and other officials from local, state, county and federal agencies are working together now to come up with a comprehensive plan to "eliminate the enormous void" the Tattnall economy will face, Cheney said.
"The strategy is going to be to do everything we can to retain the jobs we have now," Cheney said. "It's going to be a challenge. But this is a time for the community to rally." [Burger flippers, Unite!]
The Glennville workers are entitled to Trade Adjustment Assistance, a federal program brought into effect after NAFTA to assist displaced workers. The program extends unemployment pay by 26 weeks and allows workers to go to school for additional skills. [First, the hamburger must be . . . ]
Of the sewing machine operators, forklift operators, mechanics and clerical staff, 90 percent to 95 percent were women.
"It's a very good work force," Cheney said. "But there is a GED challenge in that work force."
Cheney added that the workers relied on the proximity of the Glennville plant; many walked to work.
After it closes, Vidalia will have the last Ithaca Industries plant in the state. That plant also employs about 400 workers.
Regional reporter Caitlin Cleary can be reached at 652-0456 or 369-2055.
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It will be interesting to see if Ithaca's clothing reflects the $5 difference in labor costs. It will also be interesting to see how big their CEO's bonus is for "improving the bottom line".
Sorry to be ham-handed with my bracketed remarks, but what we are going to end up with are a whole lot of people making minimum wage and the top 10% making $20+ an hour -- good bye Middle Class, hello the USA, Mexican version.
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The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.
