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Lewis Gossett, president of the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance,
tells reporters about the negative impact the loss of manufacturing
jobs is having on communities his state as Allen Gant (R) of Glen Raven,
Inc. and other industry leaders look on.
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By Alfred Dockery
SPARTANBURG, SC - Leaders of the U.S. textile and fiber industries representing several trade organizations took advantage of the SC Democratic Primary to stage a press conference aimed at making a case for retaining quotas on Chinese textile and apparel imports, and to attack what they described as the U.S. government's flawed trade policies.
"This industry is prepared to work hard on behalf of any candidate that makes an ironclad commitment on maintaining quotas on imports from China," said Allen Gant, president, Glen Raven, Inc. and first vice chairman, American Textile Manufacturers Institute (ATMI). "We are also prepared to work hard against any candidate that will not defend our workers against these illegally subsidized imports. This industry is determined that we will make a difference in the 2004 election."
The group pointed out that, since the last presidential election, the U.S. textile and apparel sector has lost 323,000 jobs, representing 31 percent of its work force. In textiles alone, one job has disappeared every nine minutes since inauguration day 2001, for a total of 156,000 lost jobs in 36 months.
Also, over the past three years, at least 211 textile plants in the United States have been forced to shut their doors. Imports of textiles and apparel from China have increased by 320 percent in the past 24 months.
"We will educate our employees," said Jim Chesnutt, CEO, National Spinning Co. and chairman of ATMI. "We will ask them to tell their family members, their neighbors, everyone at church and their friends exactly what is going on in this country as it relates to job losses in manufacturing, driven by flawed trade policy in Washington."
The executives present vowed to make every effort to get textile and fiber workers registered to vote, educated on the issues and candidates and to the polls on election day to elect candidates who will oppose unfair trade practices and support textile manufacturing jobs in this country.
"We are here because what we see taking place scares us," said John Emrich, president and CEO, Guilford Mills, Inc. "That's why we've come shoulder-to-shoulder to try to get a message out. To the men and women that work in industry - textiles, furniture or other - you're at risk. And as I understand it the people in Washington still work for us. The question for elected officials is simple, do you support American jobs or don't you?"
When asked by reporters if the textile industry's decline wasn't just a natural progression, chasing low-cost labor from New England to the Southeastern United States to off-shore production, Lewis Gossett, president of the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance (SCMA), responded, "It goes well beyond textiles. I see evidence that the next generation (of Americans) will very likely to be the first generation to do worse than the previous generation because of the eroding manufacturing base. In South Carolina, you are seeing communities literally dying because manufacturing jobs are being sent overseas."
The coalition challenged all candidates for federal office - president, Senate or House of Representatives - to address four specific issues including:
• opposing free trade agreements that cost textile jobs;
• preserving the Buy American U.S. defense industrial base requirements of the Berry Amendment;
• maintaining U.S. textile tariffs in the Doha Round; and
• aggressively using U.S. and international trade rules to attack unfair trade practices, including transshipment and intellectual property theft, in China and elsewhere.
