Planned closure of Hugo Boss plant in Brooklyn raises questions of fairness

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/02/planned_closure_of_hugo_boss_plant_in_brooklyn_raises_questions_of_fairness.html

By Olivera Perkins, The Plain Dealer
February 14, 2010, 10:00AM


Tracy Boulian, The Plain DealerSusan Brown, center, political coordinator of the Workers United union, talks to Hugo Boss workers near Nordstrom at Beachwood Place recently. The union believes that activities like this can raise public awareness that will put pressure on Hugo Boss not to close the Brooklyn plant that makes suits sold at Nordstrom.


Wanda Navarro's $13-an-hour job at the Hugo Boss plant in Brooklyn was the best she ever had. So when the owners talked about shuttering the factory, she had to do something.

The woman who describes herself as more of a wallflower became a leader in the union's effort to keep the suit-making plant from closing.

Navarro marched in protest in front of the plant with fellow workers. With wind chills in single digits, she demonstrated at Beachwood Place, where Nordstrom sells high-end Hugo Boss suits. She and other union members even handed out leaflets at the Davis Cup tennis finals in Barcelona, which the German company co-sponsored.

The drive by Workers United, which represents 311 of the roughly 375 employees at the plant, is both determined and doubtful. It seems unlikely that Hugo Boss will reverse its decision, but the effort itself draws attention to two longstanding employment issues:

# Is it greed or responsible management when a company moves a profitable business abroad to make yet more money?

# And should the United States try to preserve unskilled manufacturing jobs, or do they have little place in a restructuring American economy?


FULL story at link.

[KT2000]

1. Is Hugo Boss going to

reduce the price of their products if they move it overseas? NO!
None of these companies do - they rake it in, then reinvest in another company they can ship overseas.