Fruit of the Loom to Close Last Plant in Kentucky

[Getslow]

Biggest employer in that county and at one time was one of the biggest in the region. People who hit their production quotas well actually surpassed them made pretty decent money for the job that it was. People at one point were driving 60-75 miles one way to work there, this is anoth big blow to that region.

 

I recall the closure of the Campbellsville facility many years ago being a REAL hit to that area. I was only a kid but I actually remember people talking about what a huge blow it was.

 

The Jamestown facility was down to its 600 employees from a high of over 3,000 in 1987.

[Jumper_Dad]

Well someone is committing 1 quarter of a Trillion dollars to creating new American manufacturing jobs...the "Evil Empire" as many of you perceive them

 

[video=youtube;0LYI--n-tjE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LYI--n-tjE&list=PLs6zAwIMDe3PixJhPPTT3Ks55ZoS-uxhN

[Jumper_Dad]

I recall the closure of the Campbellsville facility many years ago being a REAL hit to that area. I was only a kid but I actually remember people talking about what a huge blow it was.

 

The Jamestown facility was down to its 600 employees from a high of over 3,000 in 1987.

Saddest part is there doesn't look to be any major job growth to absorb those employees...this will really hurt Russell Co

[Getslow]

Saddest part is there doesn't look to be any major job growth to absorb those employees...this will really hurt Russell Co

 

Impossible to replace or replicate. Major manufacturing centers are just gone. Basically impossible for a community that small to absorb that loss all at once.

[doomer]

Why can't Fruit of the Loom be competitive with local labor?

[Milfordflash]

Some guy on wkyt sunday morning said the tax laws were causing this not the cost of labor. Said the government had incentives to take your business overseas. I don't know but it wouldn't surprise me if this was true. Bill Clinton started this with the free trade crap in his administration.

[Bluegrasscard]

Why Honduras?

 

Idle capacity maybe.

 

Why idle capacity?

 

Boycott of Russell Brands (the athletic Russell) by colleges due to sweatshop and anti-unionization tactics in Honduras. Russell is part of Fruit of the Loom.

 

See here:

 

The University of Florida has terminated its licensing agreement with Russell Athletic. More than 60 universities have ended their contracts with the company after its closure of a Honduran factory where workers joined a union. | Gainesville.com

 

So activist students or the USAS were successful in getting Russell knocked out of most colleges. Now Russell and FOTL have idled or low utilization factories. So what do you do? The old 'economy of scale' and consolidate trick and move what you can down to under utilized factories. Kentucky location loses.

 

So it is possible that a contributing factor to the closure was - national college student activism.

 

A link where USAS has sung the praises of FOTL recently since their 'victory' on the Russell issue:

 

russell athletic | United Students Against Sweatshops

[Getslow]

Why Honduras?

 

Idle capacity maybe.

 

Why idle capacity?

 

Boycott of Russell Brands (the athletic Russell) by colleges due to sweatshop and anti-unionization tactics in Honduras. Russell is part of Fruit of the Loom.

 

See here:

 

The University of Florida has terminated its licensing agreement with Russell Athletic. More than 60 universities have ended their contracts with the company after its closure of a Honduran factory where workers joined a union. | Gainesville.com

 

So activist students or the USAS were successful in getting Russell knocked out of most colleges. Now Russell and FOTL have idled or low utilization factories. So what do you do? The old 'economy of scale' and consolidate trick and move what you can down to under utilized factories. Kentucky location loses.

 

So it is possible that a contributing factor to the closure was - national college student activism.

 

A link where USAS has sung the praises of FOTL recently since their 'victory' on the Russell issue:

 

russell athletic | United Students Against Sweatshops

 

Interesting.

 

Do we have a notion of how many contracts Rusell Athletic lost during that movement?

 

In the end, Jamestown was already on borrowed time with all the other manufacturing facilities in Kentucky shutting down over the last 15 years or so.

[Bluegrasscard]

Interesting.

 

Do we have a notion of how many contracts Rusell Athletic lost during that movement?

 

In the end, Jamestown was already on borrowed time with all the other manufacturing facilities in Kentucky shutting down over the last 15 years or so.

 

They lost a bunch of big name colleges. It seems by the end of 2009 they (Russell) had taken the action supported by USAS. But have the schools come back to Russell? That is harder to find. Its doubful. The damage to Russell (and FOTL) was already done and USAS probably does not go out their way to reverse boycotts once their cause is satisfied.

[coldweatherfan]

Did the massive movement of FOTL out of the US start before or after Warren Buffet bought them in 2001?

[Getslow]

Did the massive movement of FOTL out of the US start before or after Warren Buffet bought them in 2001?

 

Closures began in the mid-to-late 1990s. The article says the Campbellsville plant shut down in 1998. I don't know if it was the first or not.