16866: Burnham: factory jobs From Edmonton go to Ounaminthe free trade zone (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: thor burnham <thorald_mb@hotmail.com>

Dear Corbett village:

Yesterday, Max Blanchet forwarded a note from the Haiti support group
announcing that one of the companies that has already begun production in
Ounaminthe is Levi's, the jean maker.  My otherwise slow functioning brain
made a quick connection. Read it and weep. Me, I'm already deep into the
Barbancourt.

I've pasted an article below,from the September 26, 2003 Edmonton Journal
(Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) that describes the 92 year old Levi's factory
and it's just announced closing.  (Plus 2 other factories in Ontario and one
in Texas) The workers (mostly female, mostly East- Asian, mostly English as
second language) are losing their jobs. Where are those jobs going? Off to
Haiti, the free-trade zone in Ounaminthe.

Of course, they don't know they are losing their jobs to Haiti, but Levi's
did admit it is moving it's manufacturing off-shore to compete. We now know
that Ounaminthe is one of the places Levi's has already shifted assembly to.
Make of it what you will.

chay la lou...
Thor Burnham

http://www.canada.com/search/story.aspx?id=46a28b71-b3b1-4ae1-a93f-ccfac5153bb2

Don Thomas
The Edmonton Journal

Friday, September 26, 2003

EDMONTON - After a losing struggle to remain competitive with offshore
factories, Levi Strauss is closing its North American plants, including one
in Edmonton with 488 workers.

Counsellors were available Thursday as the mostly female, mostly East Asian
workers at the Edmonton sewing plant at 10660 85th Street were assembled at
8 a.m. and manager Nancy Wong broke the news.

They were sent home and will return today. The plant will be shut down next
March.

Also facing closure is a sewing plant in Stoney Creek, Ont., with 460
workers and a plant in Brantford, Ont., whose 231 workers washed blue jeans
from Edmonton and Stoney Creek, removing some of the blue dye to give jeans
a worn look or to produce other finishes. A Texas plant is also being
closed.

In 1961, Levi Strauss bought the operations of Great West Garments, an
Edmonton fixture since 1911.

The GWG plant opened in what later became the Army and Navy Department store
at 10305 97th St., making blue jeans, jackets, shirts and, during the Second
World War, military uniforms. It moved to its present location in 1952.

Levi Strauss is now one of the last major garment makers in North America,
said Canadian manager Julie Klee, from Toronto suburb Richmond Hill where
the Canadian head office and marketing division is located.

She didn't know how many of its other 320 workers will be left when the
company becomes a marketer and distributor of strictly foreign-made clothes.

While the Canadian plants are very efficient and productive, their costs are
higher than plants offshore and they can't as quickly put out different
lines of clothes as trends change, she said.

"I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say costs entered into the overall
decision that the company made in the late '90s to get away from owning our
facilities to working from the contractor base," she said.

"This is a very difficult and painful decision to make."

Workers will get generous severance packages and job counselling, she said.
As well, Edmonton, Stoney Creek and Brantford will share a $1-million
community development fund to cushion the blow, Klee said.

Mayor Bill Smith described the decision as disappointing, but almost
inevitable in the global economy. More and more, companies like Levis
contract manufacturing to countries with much lower labour costs, said
Smith.

Levis was not only a big employer in town, said Smith, but supported a
number of charitable causes.

"That is a particular loss," Smith said.

Janet Cardinal, an official of the United Food and Commercial Workers local
128 which represents the Edmonton workers, said Levi Strauss was known as an
employer that would take new Canadians with limited English skills.

Classes in English as a second language are available in the plant when the
work day ends.

While the pay is in the $10- to $12-per-hour range, benefits are good and it
has been an excellent place to work, Cardinal said. She began working there
in 1962 at age 17 and after leaving Edmonton for a few years, returned 15
years ago.

While she's among the oldest workers, many have been there 20 to 30 years
and may have a difficult time finding other work, she said. Several left the
plant in tears Thursday.

While Levi Strauss's Canadian plants are good employers, the offshore plants
it will use may not be, said Les Steel, president of the Alberta Federation
of Labour which had encouraged its members to buy the Dockers from Edmonton.

Klee would not say where Levi Strauss will have its garments made. But Steel
said North American clothing and footwear sellers often buy from contractors
who use plants in free trade zones in Latin America, China and other Far
East countries.

Typically, they lack labour laws, paying workers three or four dollars a day
for long workdays in hot, sweaty plants, he said.

"I think Levi Strauss is being greedy," he said. "What you saw here was a
product that was well-made and popular, especially the Dockers. There were
good jobs, taxes were paid in the community and now they're moving the jobs
to wherever.

"The people who will be doing this work from now on will probably make a
couple of bucks a day and we're not going to see the price of Dockers go
down, are we?"

Anne Ozipko began working for GWG in 1943 when it operated on a piece-work
basis and she earned $12 a week. For 10 years she was union president and
from about 1967 to 1997 was its UFCW representative.

In that time, she saw huge improvements in working conditions.

During the Second World War, the plant was exempted from minimum wage
requirements, paying hourly workers 45 cents an hour instead of the minimum
50 cents, she said.

Several years after Levi Strauss bought it, all workers began being paid by
the hour, eliminating piecework.

While there were no strikes during Ozipko's 54-year association with GWG and
then Levi Strauss, there was a work stoppage in 1963 in the cutting room
regarding piecework.

And while GWG's pressing machines did create sweatshop conditions, Levi
Strauss was an excellent employer, installing air conditioning in the 1970s.

A state-of-the art laser cutting machine was installed four years ago to
precision-cut fabric for the Dockers slacks.

"It's not the old GWG," she said. "They're making good money. We used to get
people from other plants in Edmonton because they knew we had benefits and
everything else and they didn't."

But the company began "out-sourcing" some of its clothes from Nicaragua,
Honduras and the Caribbean in recent years and the closure of the plant did
not come as a complete surprise, she said.

dthomas@thejournal.canwest.com

- - -

END OF AN ERA

The Great West Garment Company, and its successor Levi Strauss, have been
part of Edmonton -- and a major employer -- for 92 years.

1) Profits are bad? here's the latest profit reports.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030930.wmorn3009/BNStory/Business/?query=%22levi%22

“Corporate news
• Jeans company Levi Strauss & Co. -- which announced last week it is
shutting its remaining three Canadian production facilities — posted a
stronger third-quarter profit Tuesday. U.S.-based Levi Strauss said it
earned $26.7-million (U.S.) in the quarter ended Aug. 24, up from
$13.7-million in the same period the year before. “
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030926/RLEVI26//?query=%22levi%22

2) here's the losses

“U.S.-based Levi Strauss & Co., the 150-year-old maker of blue jeans,
announced the shutdowns yesterday as part of its plans to shift more
production to lower-wage countries. It will shutter its plants in Edmonton
as well as Stoney Creek and Brantford, Ont., in March, throwing 1,180 people
out of work. Also to be closed is an operation in San Antonio, Tex.,
affecting 800 employees.
Lately, however, the company has been facing tougher times.
Under pressure to meet bank covenants, it recently announced a $1.15-billion
(U.S.) refinancing plan, and said it would be cutting jobs worldwide.
Despite rumours of impending plant closings, yesterday's news was still a
shock to many long-time Levi Strauss employees.”
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 06:59:43 EDT

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