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| Prisoners Blamed for Taking Shirts Off Backs of Workers |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 11/08/2002 |
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Workers who lost their jobs when the C.F. Hathaway plant closed blamed corporate greed and free trade agreements for the death of the nation's oldest shirt factory. But a Michigan congressman says part of the blame belongs to federal prisoners who produced more than $150 million worth of clothing last year, shutting manufacturers like Hathaway out of lucrative federal contracts. ''In addition to foreign competition, unfair competition from federal prisoners has contributed to the demise of domestic textile manufactures like Hathaway,'' said U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a critic of Federal Prison Industries. The death of the 165-year-old shirt manufacturer last month was sealed when the Maine company lost an Air Force contract for long-sleeved dress shirts worth $18 million to $20 million to a shirt plant in Macon, Ga. Hoekstra contends there would have been more defense contracts for manufacturers like Hathaway to share if Federal Prison Industries did not have a lock on many federal contracts, including one that makes it the sole supplier of short-sleeved dress shirts for the Air Force. FPI, which goes under the trade name UNICOR, is an arm of the U.S. Justice Department's Federal Bureau of Prisons, employing nearly 22,560 prisoners. In 2001, it had sales of $583.5 million. Donald Sappington, chief executive officer of Hathaway, said he was unaware that so much apparel business goes to prison inmates, and he praised Hoekstra for calling attention to something few people know about. He agreed that additional government contracts could have kept the plant open. Although contracts with Wal-Mart and Dillard's accounted for roughly two-thirds of the company's annual production, Hathaway hoped to fill the remaining piece of the pie with the Air Force contract. Instead, the contract went to Macon Garment Co., which already had been making the shirts for 18 months. Ruth Bracken, a spokeswoman for Federal Prison Industries, defended the agency, saying it's rarely the loss of any single contract that forces a private company like Hathaway to move production offshore. The prisoners tend to be a tempting target for critics, Bracken said from Washington. ''We're an easy scapegoat,'' she said. Federal agencies are required by law to buy from FPI unless it does not manufacture the specific item or it grants a waiver. All told, the prisoners make 150 products ranging from office furniture to military uniforms to circuit boards. |
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