Eastport manufacturer: Layoff of 25 employees part of ‘retooling’

EASTPORT – A company that manufactures protective military clothing has laid off upwards of 25 people, but Creative Apparel Associates said it was part of a retooling effort. Some employees will be called back beginning next week.

Plant Manager Larry Hilderbrand said Wednesday that there were no plans to close the sewing operation.

“What we are simply doing is we are restructuring and rescheduling because a new product line is coming in,” he said.

Hilderbrand said six new items have been added to the sewing operation but could not discuss them because the company contracts with the Department of Defense.

“You can imagine what is involved, new sewing procedures, new techniques,” he said. “You have to retool the machines, and you have to retrain the people to do this. Frankly, this is a positive thing because this gives us more job security and more variety in our products.”

City Manager George “Bud” Finch said he had spoken with company officials on Wednesday and learned that some of the layoffs were handled through attrition, adding that staffing was at a five-year low of 40 people. When the plant started up more than five years ago, it employed upwards of 100 people.

“With the retooling and rescheduling that is taking place, some employees can be called back as soon as next week, and it is fully expected to be up to the 90 to 100 range of employees in the first quarter of 2005,” Finch said.

Finch said he was pleased to learn about the new sewing lines. “What this does for the Eastport facility is it strengthens the diversity of their product line and it helps stabilize the workforce into the future,” he said. “It is unfortunate because of the holiday season, but it is beneficial to employees in the long run.”

In 1998, the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township, state and local government and private industry formed a partnership to take over the 72,000-square-foot plant, which had closed a year earlier.

Three companies, Creative Apparel Associates and Group Home Foundation Inc., both of Belfast, and Tex-Shield Inc. of Mount Laurel, N.J., renovated the building on Route 191 after Guilford of Maine closed it in 1997, idling 100 workers.

The three businesses worked together to produce chemical warfare suits for the military. The suits have a cotton-nylon outer shell with a carbon-bead lining that absorbs chemical agents.

Tex-Shield manufactures the materials for the chemical warfare suits. The material is then shipped to Eastport. Employees working at high-tech sewing machines assemble the fabric into chemical warfare suits designed to protect troops from hazardous material.