From the Raleigh N&O, Sunday, December 10, 2006:

250 to lose jobs at denim plant

Greensboro company to go from seven-day to five-day week

GREENSBORO - About 250 people will lose their jobs next month when Cone Denim dismisses a quarter of its work force, company officials said.

The company, competing in a market dominated by foreign-made jeans, will move from a seven-day to a five-day work week at its White Oak denim plant, said Delores Sides, a spokeswoman for Greensboro-based International Textile Group, Cone Denim's parent company.

"We announced to the employees last week that the plant would be moving to a different work schedule," Sides tole the News & Record of Greensboro.

International Textile believes the plant's survival will rest on high-end denim brands, such as Levi's, 7 For All Mankind and True Religion, Sides said.

The plant is 1.6 million square feet and was built in 1905. In March the company plans to close a department that produces yarn for cheaper denim that is more course than denim used in luxary brands.

The White Oak plant's history is producing high-end jeans will be an advantage over companies in other countries that tend to make lower-quality denim, Sides said.

In April, Cone Denim announced plans to open a 750-employee plant in Nicaragua. The company also has a production facility in Mexico, a hand in ventures in India and Turkey, and is building a plant in China.
And why can't those high-end jeans be made in North Carolina for shipment elsewhere (outside the country)? Oh that's right, I've almost forgot about the "cheap labor" issue.

This is absolutely ridiculous, Cone Denim is building a plant in China and will pay it's Chinese employees less than .50 cents an hour to make high-end jeans. Many of those same jeans will be shipped to American consumers and sold at the same price as those manufactured in the United States where the employees are making a much higher wage. This isn't about a plants survival, this is about corporate greed! Eventually there will be no more Cone Denim in Greensboro or the United States. The beginning of the end all started when they built their first facility in Mexico - now they are opening plants in China and Nicaragua. Thank you President Bush and the U.S. Congress for your continued efforts in destroying America's middle class with your global market agenda!