Jorge Rivas

Suit Up in the Name of Workers

President Obama was inaugurated in a suit made by Illinois’ HartSchaffner & Marx in a unionized shop. The next American president might not have that same opportunity as Hartmarx corp, HSM’s parent company, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. That leaves only a handful of American suit factories, almost all are not unionized.

If Hartmax Corp. shuts down, an estimated 3,800 union jobs will be lost.

All this is going on while a Republican Senator is trying to block the confirmation of Los Angeles Congresswoman Hilda Solis as Labor Secretary because she supported the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA.)

So as a friendly reminder, the Department of Labor was established in 1913 to “foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working conditions and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment”

Posted at 10:38 AM, Jan 27, 2009 in Labor | Permalink | View Comments