Eastport plant workers consider forming locally owned company

EASTPORT – A transfer of contracts to other manufacturers of chemical warfare suits, including one in Texas, has cost 60 employees their jobs, but a representative for U.S. Sen. Susan Collins denied that the Bush administration favored Texans over Maine workers.

The workers at Little River Apparel Inc. in Eastport may be out of jobs, but Monday night they said they still had hope. They are eager to form their own manufacturing company to compete nationally for defense contracts.

Former Plant Manager Kathryn McDowell and more than 50 workers met with the Eastport City Council on Monday night. McDowell said they were ready to invest their efforts to form a company, but she admitted they did not have the business expertise to do so. She said they needed the city’s help.

State Sen. Kevin Shorey, R-Calais, and Rep. Albion Goodwin, D-Pembroke, said they would find money at the state level to fund a feasibility study to see if a locally owned company could compete nationally.

City Manager George “Bud” Finch said he would work closely with the unemployed workers. “Our commitment is first to put you people back to work as soon as possible, ” he said. He said the city also would explore the possibility of starting a new sewing company.

“If we can make higher quality suits at a lower cost, there is an opportunity for work,” he said.

After the meeting with the council, the former workers met with Shorey and Goodwin and created an eight-person committee that will work with them, Collins’ staff and the state on setting up a new company.

Finch met Tuesday with representatives of Eastern Maine Development Corp. in Bangor.

Finch said he also would explore other options, including attracting another manufacturing facility to use the space vacated by Little River Apparel. The plant closed April 26.

Last month, Group Home Foundation Inc. of Belfast, a private, nonprofit agency that provides employment for the handicapped, which owned Little River Apparel, announced it would close the Eastport facility.

About 20 of the employees who worked with programmable sewing machines or assembled garments at the Eastport facility were disabled.

For the past three years, sewing machines hummed as workers assembled specialty military jackets that have a cotton-nylon outer shell with a carbon-bead lining that absorbs chemical agents. The jackets are part of a joint military service chemical protective ensemble known as JSLIST, for Joint Service Lightweight Integrated Suit Technology.

Company officials blamed the closure on the fact 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 facilities in Belfast and Eastport, but that figure was reduced to about 8,000 suits a month.

Workers were confused by the announcement, because 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 the United States.

Eastport City Council Chairman Greg Biss said city officials were still unclear about why the facility was closed. “I wish I could tell you we knew the whole story, but I don’t feel that we do,” he said.

Collins’ representative, Judy Cuddy, who was at the Monday night meeting, said the National Institute for the Severely Handicapped was responsible for awarding the contracts.

NISH, according to its Web site, provides employment opportunities for people with severe disabilities under federal legislation. It also works closely with companies and government procurement agencies to ensure that there are employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

Cuddy said the problem didn’t seem to be less demand for chemical warfare suits, as much as a shift in who received the contracts. She said the 2002 budget called for $89.5 million worth of chemical warfare suits to be produced. That compares with $86.8 million in next year’s budget.

“When we increase the production of suits, the purchase of suits and other pieces of apparel, the producers of those suits also ramp up and find more workers. More companies are put together to compete for those contracts. So the efforts on the part of the workers in Eastport and Little River would be in competition with other National Institute for the Severely Handicapped [manufacturers] which receive the contract for these suits,” she said

Asked which companies received an increase in orders, Cuddy said she did not have the specifics but added “there are a lot in Texas. There is a large [manufacturer] in Texas.” She was not able to identify the company.

But Cuddy said she doesn’t think the Bush administration had exerted influence over NISH. “Its [awarding of contracts] based on whatever criteria NISH uses to allocate the total numbers they get [is] their call,” she said. “I know there is one [manufacturer] in Texas that is getting a lot of contracts right now. They’ve increased their number of workers; they’ve expanded tremendously, so their capacity is huge. … An installation has to be able to expand to a surge capacity in the event of real national emergency, so they have to have contracts in place sufficient that should they declare this emergency they can expand rapidly and Texas is expanding,” she said.

NISH officials did not return a telephone call Tuesday.

But U.S. Rep. John Baldacci’s staff said they would look into the matter.

Baldacci said Tuesday that his staff has “pursued several avenues in an effort to be of assistance to impacted workers.” He said his staff has spoken with the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Defense Department’ Joint Program Office to request additional funding.