Eastport firm closes doors; workers uncertain of future

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EASTPORT – At one time, Anne Marie Hastings, a single mother of two, lived from welfare check to welfare check.

Then two years ago, she was hired by Little River Apparel, and she took great pride in sewing the chemical warfare suits the company made for the military.

Today, Hastings and 59 other workers are out of a job. The sewing machines that had hummed for the past three years are silent. The lights are turned off, and the door is locked.

But for the past three years, workers assembled specialty military jackets that have a cotton-nylon outer shell with a carbon-bead lining that absorbs chemical agents.

“I really liked working here,” Hastings said Friday, the last day of production. “I liked working with the people. I felt like I was doing something for my country. It’s scary.”

The mood generally felt throughout the plant, the unemployed worker said, was “fear of the unknown, and what is going to happen, and sadness.”

Group Home Foundation Inc. of Belfast, a private, nonprofit agency that provides employment for the handicapped, once owned Little River Apparel. Before it closed its doors, about 20 of the employees, who worked with programmable sewing machines or assembled garments at the Eastport facility, were identified as disabled.

Next week, a crew of five will be cleaning up.

The plant opened its doors amid much public fanfare when Little River moved into the 72,000-square-foot building in Eastport with Creative Apparel of Belfast and Tex Shield Inc. of Mount Laurel, N.J.

The three companies had renovated the former textile mill building on Route 191 after Guilford of Maine closed it in 1997, idling 100 workers.

Employment in the city took another hit last year, when nearby Gates Formed-Fibre Products Inc. closed its doors and put 50 out of work.

For Washington County, this latest closure, coupled with the job losses in the aquaculture business, has county residents reeling. During the past week, representatives of the county’s largest employer, Domtar Industries Inc., met with Baileyville town officials and warned them they would have to cut spending and lower property taxes. Although company officials never said the words out loud, it was clear that Domtar, which employs nearly 600 people, would not continue to operate a mill that has lost upwards of $15 million a year for the past decade.

On Thursday, Little River employees were busy finishing up a final contract. The air buzzed with the vibrations of the sewing machines, and Army tan jackets lay in piles on counters.

When Little River officials announced the closing last week, they said that the latest contract with the Department of Defense was about a third smaller than the previous contract. They had been producing 12,000 suits at the two facilities, but that figure was reduced to about 8,000 suits a month.

Group Home Foundation employs about 150 workers at its Belfast facility. The reduction in orders will not affect workers there.U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe said Friday that federal contracts were awarded on a competitive basis.

“Unfortunately, in this case, Little River did not prevail in its competition for the contract, although the Department of Defense is continuing to purchase a wide range of hazardous materials protective apparel,” she said. “I have inquired with the administration and the company about the contract, and to determine what options remain for Little River.”

The smaller government contract had worker Charlene Jones of Dennysville puzzled.

“They said there was not enough money to buy these jackets. If the government hasn’t got any money to buy the [chemical warfare suits] for those [military] boys over there, they shouldn’t be over there [in Afghanistan],” she said.

In recent months, President Bush has said that the country’s enemies have chemical weapons of mass destruction that he believed they would not hesitate to use on United States citizens.

At the company headquarters in Belfast, executive director Harold Siefken said he, too, was amazed that more money had not been made available for protective clothing.

“Right after September 11, they rushed through a special defense appropriations bill … and then, most recently, the regular defense appropriation bill. To the best of my knowledge, there was no additional money in either of those bills for chemical protection gear,” he said.

In a telephone interview, U.S. Rep. John Baldacci said Friday that although his office already has been in contact with the Defense Department, he plans to pursue the issue himself on Monday.

“Not only in terms of why they are cutting it back, if in fact they are, but also about doing additional purchases to see what can be done about that,” he said.

Trudy Polk of Perry, a suit inspector for the past six months, said she was devastated by the news of the closure. For her, the job loss means a move to Bangor.

“No jobs around here,” she said sadly.

Judy Trott of Eastport said she was angry. “Not just for myself, but for my co-workers.

“Anybody in this area who is looking for a job [is] being forced to relocate to other places because there are no jobs in Washington County,” she said.

Four days after company officials made the announcement, the state Department of Labor’s rapid response team met with the employees to offer assistance with training, health care and other needs.

Plant manager Kathryn McDowell praised her workers for their resilience. Although they faced a dim future, it was business as usual at the plant on Thursday.

“The way we have tried to work here is to … promote teamwork, not ‘I work’ or ‘me work,'” she said from her office high above the factory floor. “As the teams have been building, we’ve been bonding, so we have a family unit here.”

Emotions at the plant ranged from tears to anger, including anger at the company’s executive officer, but McDowell said she viewed Siefken as a man of integrity. She said that when he told employees last week they were going to close the plant, “he cried like a baby.”

Siefken said it had been a tough business decision.

“The single biggest issue here is there are five of us [companies] nationally who make the suits, and right now, there is more manufacturing capacity then there are dollars to buy suits,” he said. “A year or so ago, the Department of Defense was asking everybody to ramp up, so we ramped up.

“Now we get to ramp down, I guess.”

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ staff also wants to know more about DOD’s purchases.

“The General Accounting Office has documented that we need to have more of these suits, especially post-September 11,” said Felicia Knight, the senator’s press secretary. “According to the GAO, events since September 11 have resulted in increased demand for chemical protective suits. In fact, the GAO cites the DOD as having inadequate inventory to protect its military personnel from chemical and biological attacks.”

Nancy Raye, who owns Raye’s Mustard Mill in Eastport, said she understood why Siefken had to make the decision.

“Businesses exist to make a profit. That is not to say they should get rich on the backs of their employees – nobody is saying that – but if you can’t make a profit in an area, then you owe it to your business to do something about it,” she said. “That’s an economic fact.”

While they might be out of a job, many of the employees are planning for the future. Some said they would take advantage of the state’s education retraining program.

Hastings said she was considering returning to school and pursuing secretarial studies. She said she doesn’t want to go back on welfare.

“I loved being able to say to the kids on a Thursday or Friday night, ‘I don’t feel like cooking. Let’s go out to eat.’ When they wanted something, I didn’t have to say ‘let’s wait for the first of the month.’ I didn’t have to do that,” she said. “Now we are looking at that again; it’s pretty scary.”

Other employees talked about starting their own company.

“I do believe where there is a will, there is a way,” the plant manager said. “I think a lot of people in this area are going to donate a lot of their time to see what they can make happen.”

Eastport City Manager George “Bud” Finch also was thinking along those lines. He said he already had made contact with state and federal officials to see whether a company could be formed that would continue to produce chemical suits.

“Why don’t we go out and bid the contracts?” he asked.

If that doesn’t work, Finch said, he plans to pursue companies that might be willing to relocate Down East.

Snowe said if employees were able to keep the operation going, “they would have the potential to bid as a new entity on future federal contracts.”

But downtown businesses are jittery. Nancy Bishop, who owns the Waco Diner, a premier eating spot downtown, said she has seen her business decline 40 percent compared with last winter. She blames the decline on a loss of manufacturing jobs in the city.

On Thursday, handwritten signs taped to individual workstations at the manufacturing plant conveyed the employee’s emotions.

One man’s sign reflected remnants of humor: “I suppose your last words … will be okay, let’s sew it up.”