Shoe firm leaves 54 Maine workers jobless

SKOWHEGAN – The abrupt relocation of a shoe manufacturing operation to Brooklyn, N.Y., has left 54 workers jobless and in shock.

“We had no indication that anything was going to happen,” said Sandra Wood, one of the laid-off workers at American Shoe Corp. “As we all understood it, it was all going good.”

Bruce MacDonald, the company’s director of manufacturing, said owner Ken Silverman offered no explanation for why the maker of specialty shoes for people with orthopedic needs was leaving town.

“There is no reason, from where I’m sitting, why this is happening,” MacDonald said.

Silverman, who was at the Route 150 site Sunday as crews loaded the plant’s equipment onto rented trucks, declined comment.

Wood said she got a call from MacDonald on Sunday to pick up her last payment and personal belongings. She said she found her belongings scattered all over the factory floor.

The 46-year-old grandmother said Silverman did not offer workers a transfer to the Brooklyn factory as an option.

“I really don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said. “There are not many jobs around here.”

Skowhegan economic development directory Jeffrey Hewitt said he, too, was shocked by the abrupt move.

“All the indications I had were that they were doing well,” he said, “So it is surprising news to me that this happened.”

Hewitt said he is uncertain what retraining programs the dislocated workers might be eligible to access.

This weekend’s development is just the latest twist for a shoe factory MacDonald founded with his father in 1992.

At that time, the business was known as MacDonald Footwear Inc. But the company lost a major contract and was forced to close in December 2001.

Former Central Maine Power Co. president Matthew Hunter bought the factory in an auction last year and launched the custom-made shoe company, Custom Shoes of Maine, with MacDonald as his vice president of sales.

This year, Silverman bought the factory from Hunter and renamed the business American Shoe Corp.