Thread: Apparelmaker comes to aid of laid-off workers

Last Updated: December 23, 2006
Apparelmaker comes to aid of laid-off workers
FesslerUSA offers jobs to former employees of Schuylkill garment factory.
By Chris Parker Of The Morning Call Rick Strouphauer toils in the cavernous Auburn Apparel plant, sorting through piles of machine parts, spools of thread and equipment used to make clothing. The clinks and thumps echo through the empty building, once humming with machinery and the voices of dozens of workers.

Now, the Schuylkill County plant is idle, most of its 38 employees clocking out at 10 a.m. Thursday, leaving Strouphauer and a few others to close out and clean up.


But just as the displaced workers seemed resigned to the bleak prospect of spending the new year looking for jobs, an Orwigsburg apparel plant owner has stepped in to offer employment.

''God has richly blessed us,'' said FesslerUSA CEO Walter Meck. ''We are a faith-driven business. God has been very good to us and we try to honor him in everything we do, and that is one of the reasons we did this.''

While many of Auburn Apparel's workers are survivors of other plant closings as the North American garment industry unraveled over the years — Strouphauer said Auburn's jobs went overseas — Meck assures them his highly specialized business is thriving.

FesslerUSA, which employs 250 at its four plants in Orwigsburg, Schuylkill Haven, Deer Lake and Reading, and about 200 contract workers, makes women's tops that are sold in high-end retail stores such as Nordstrom.

The company controls the manufacturing process start to finish, making the fabric, creating the designs, cutting and sewing the top and shipping the finished product.

The tops are sold in small batches that allow the company to quickly make garments to a designer's style and color order.

''We are growing,'' Meck said. ''We have grown significantly and steadily over each of the past five years.''

Meck said several Auburn Apparel employees have told him they plan to take him up on his offer. He expects them to begin applying in early January.

Strouphauer, a machinist, said he hasn't decided whether to apply to FesslerUSA.

''I haven't given it much thought,'' he said. ''I'm still contracted to be here until Jan. 31 because I am cleaning out the building. I have a family, so I have to do what I have to do to keep my family going. I have a lot of applications out.''

Like most long-time garment workers, Strouphauer has weathered unemployment.

''I've been through this before,'' he said. ''This will be at least my third time closing a plant down.''

He worked at Wright's Knitwear — the Auburn site of what was most recently Auburn Apparel — until it closed about five years ago, and at Gerber Childrenswear in Ephrata, Lancaster County, until it closed in 1994.

Strouphauer said he ''had an inkling'' that Auburn Apparel was closing.

''I just feel sorry for the people,'' he said. ''We had a lot of older people here. I hope they all find work. They were a good bunch of people — we all had fun in this place.''

Auburn CEO Scott F. Blessing referred questions about the plant to Vice President Rolf D. Schmidt. Calls to his office were not immediately returned.

As Strouphauer sorts everything from thread to nails into piles, co-worker Norma Stauffer pushed a broom, sweeping up the dusty detritus of the garment trade.

She worked at Auburn Apparel for 11 years and was in charge of folding and receiving. She, too, will take some time to decide whether to go to FesslerUSA.


''I just need to take a couple months off,'' she said.

Stauffer said the announcement that the plant was closing didn't come as a surprise.


Stauffer, who has worked in the garment industry for 25 years, is taking the loss in stride.

''It's just something that happened,'' she said. ''I went through it before and there's nothing you can really do about it.''

David Ferguson, president of Performance Sports Apparel Inc., Reading, said Auburn Apparel is owned by private investors and was a vendor for his company, which supplied almost all of its work.

Blessing and Schmidt are also listed as officers of Performance, according to government records.

''Auburn is closing their doors because they cannot be profitable anymore,'' Ferguson said. ''They had substantial financial loses over the past several years and they cannot stay afloat. They are not closing because work is going to China. That is not accurate.''

Ferguson said Performance has had to buy its specialized fabric from sources outside the United States.

''We can't feed [Auburn] work because we can't find sources in United States,'' he said.

chris.parker@mcall.com

610-379-3224

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b1- ... l-news-hed

I emailed Fessler and asked them for a list of stores their product ultimately ends up in and told them I am concerned with putting Americans to work and buying American made products. I thought maybe more people might be interested in doing the same. Just a thought.

They're not closing because the work is going to China...uh huh.

Or some other country with very cheap wages. I watched a documentary in one of my university classes on labor in those countries. For them its a lot of money by their standards. They talked about Nike and said that it cost them only 13 cents about 2 or 3 years ago. That includes material and labor. Too bad they charge us so much for them.

Originally Posted by swatchick

Or some other country with very cheap wages. I watched a documentary in one of my university classes on labor in those countries. For them its a lot of money by their standards. They talked about Nike and said that it cost them only 13 cents about 2 or 3 years ago. That includes material and labor. Too bad they charge us so much for them.

Yes, and it's really too bad some of us pay it. I haven't seen prices go down for American consumers, so it looks like the so-called "cheap labor", no matter where it comes from, doesn't save American consumers one dime. It only cost us jobs.

Goods just keep getting more expensive, foreign cars, appliances, clothing, etc., are no cheaper than American goods. At least not for American consumers.

They changed the name to "Apparellmakers, instead of "textile" and "Sweatshops.

I have found two stores that are selling "Made in America" tops.

There aren't many in these stores, but there are some:

Value City has a label called, Sarah Lawrence

Body Central has a few graphic t-shirts, that Jr.'s like.

I emailed both of these stores, thanked them for carrying "Made in USA" products. Body Central answered me, haven't heard from Value City.