Spartanburg, SC, Feb. 3--Leaders of the domestic textile industry Thursday warned all candidates for federal office this year to either commit to protect U.S. manufacturing or face rejection at the polls by both employer and employee, according to the Greenville News.
Owners, presidents and other executives from nearly 20 companies from New England to Georgia said they will continue voter registration drives among their workers and will make sure their employees know where each candidate stands on issues of job preservation and foreign trade policies.
"This industry is unified and we will do everything we can possibly do to make certain that the 630,000 people working in this industry are energized to be a part of the election," said Jim Chestnutt, chief executive officer of North Carolina's National Spinning Co.
They issued a five-point platform against which they will measure each candidate.
"We will educate our employees, we will ask them to tell their family members, their neighbors, everyone at church, their friends exactly what's going on in this country as it relates to job losses in manufacturing and, even now, job losses in other sectors driven by flawed trade policies in Washington," Chestnutt said.
Of the 24 executives at the conference, all said they supported President Bush in the 2000 election. However, just two said they are committed to his re-election.
Allen Gant, president of Glen Raven Inc. of North Carolina and an officer of the American Textile Manufacturers Institute, said that under Bush's watch, the United States lost more than 2.5 million manufacturing jobs, including 323,000 in the textile and apparel industries.
Roger Milliken, the dean of U.S. textile manufacturers, and one of the 22 not committed to Bush, said, "Any politician who wants to have a future has got to get wise to this issue."
"This is not just textiles," he said. Of the 2.5 million manufacturing jobs to disappear during the Bush administration, textiles and apparel lost one out of nine.
The textile industry, he said, is "just the canary in the mine that ought to be listened to, because what has happened to us will happen to all."
