It wanted to shift production of its less-pricey Towne coats, which retail for about $100, from overseas factories to Maryland to increase efficiency at the three plants, Krell said.īut first, London Fog said, the union had to drop a case it had brought claiming that the company was producing too much overseas, in violation of its labor contract. Ironically, the dispute that ultimately led to the planned shutdown of the Maryland factories began when the company proposed to the union that it increase production at the Maryland plants. Sales have dropped from 1.3 million coats in 1980 to 450,000 last year. Although London Fog holds about 80 percent of the market for men's rainwear and about 60 percent for women's, sales of its top-of-the-line London Fog coats, which are produced in the three Maryland plants and retail for about $200, have plummeted.
The rainwear line produced by London Fog, which also produces other lines of clothing, has been sagging recently. Merrill Lynch brought in Cohen, formerly the head of catalogue clothier J. The tensions have been building since last year when London Fog, which has changed ownership several times in the last 15 years, ended up in the hands of Merrill Lynch Capital Partners. "There are moments in any personal relationship when things just explode," said union President Jack Sheinkman. Negotiations between London Fog and the textile workers' union, however, have been more like a family feud. We've worked together for so long, it's just like family here." "I've shed many blood, sweat and tears here," said Grace Ravenscroft, a 53-year-old Reisterstown resident who has worked at the Baltimore plant for 34 years. After October, the raincoats will be made by contractors in countries such as Sri Lanka, China and Colombia. London Fog officials said it costs $18 more to produce one raincoat domestically than it does in overseas factories. Krell, vice president for investor relations.
The company has said it will close the three plants by the end of October, in time to contract overseas manufacturers to produce London Fog's spring line, according to Edward M. "I wouldn't sit by the phone waiting, frankly," said union spokeswoman Jo-Ann Mort. About 500,000 jobs have been lost in the apparel and textile industry since 1980, according to Census Bureau figures.Īlthough a last-ditch effort begun last week holds out the possibility that the Amalgamated Clothing and Textiles Workers union, which represents the employees, and London Fog officials could cobble together an agreement that would reduce the cost of production, no one is banking on it. More broadly, the closings represent another loss for the devastated domestic garment industry. Their shutdown will end London Fog's 72-year legacy as a Maryland manufacturer and mark the exodus of one of the last apparel manufacturers from Baltimore.
The plants - in Hancock, Williamsport and Baltimore - are the company's last U.S. Production will be moved overseas, and 700 Maryland workers will be stripped of their jobs. Cohen announced two weeks ago that the company's three Maryland plants would close because the domestic costs of making its famous raincoats are too high. I'm very hurt," Dudley, 59, said after work as she looked back from the factories' parking lot at the low brick building with "Londontown" lettered on the side. "It's disappointing, because after staying on the job for 29 1/2 years, you don't think that it would happen, that your job will be taken away from you. But now, shaking her head, she says bitterly that she feels hurt and betrayed by the company she thought she would work for until retirement. BALTIMORE - Sally Dudley used to think of her workplace, the London Fog raincoat factory in northwest Baltimore, as a home.
0 kommentar(er)
