Hugo Boss Threatens to Move Overseas if Workers Refuse $4/Hr Pay Cut
How decent of them to offer to stay if employees took a $4 an hour pay cut. Wow, we are all in this together, right? Has it ever once occurred to CEO’s that their companies need to make some sacrifices during a time of recession in order to keep people working?
It wasn’t very long ago that every time you looked at a clothing label you would see “Made in the USA.” Not only was it made in the USA but it probably also had some sort of connection to a thriving garment industry in the Cleveland area. Names like Joseph & Feiss Co, Bobbie Brooks, Printz-Biederman, Lion Knitting Mills, and Cleveland Worsted Mill dominated the industry and union cards kept people gainfully employed.
But this good thing has come to an end. Now Hugo Boss, the last clothing manufacturer in Cleveland, has given notice of their intent to shutter their plant and permanently lay off 400 workers at the end of April.
Hugo is closing because they want to ship the jobs to a plant in Turkey where they can pay much less than the average current rate of $12 per hour they pay Cleveland employees.
Hugo management offered to stay if the employees were willing to cut pay to $8 an hour.
[snip]
Maybe we could understand this if the Hugo Boss label was going out of business and closing the plant because they could no longer pay their employees, but this isn’t the case. Hugo spends millions of dollars sponsoring all sorts of sporting events: Formula 1 racing, tennis tournaments, golf, and sailing. So we’re telling Hugo to keep Cleveland working—forget the Formula 1 and invest in the families who have invested in you!
February 5th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Well, Singer still manufactures its sewing machines in the USA ( I use my Grandma’s treadle) and here is a list of fabrics manufacturers
http://www.apparelsearch.com/World_Clothing_Industry/United_States/Fabric_Mills_USA.htm
Or Hugo Boss can be boycotted.
Sage Reply:
February 5th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
My mother is a seamstress and I have to say that I hate sewing. Maybe because she always did it for us if we whined when something went wrong.
February 5th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
I haven’t had the time the last 10 yrs or so. Lost the big belt when I moved but recently found a new one. This machine has a lot of attachments. I took tailoring lessons in High School. I learned from both Grandmothers.
February 5th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
This is KIDNAPPING actually or ransom or something. I can’t think of the word I want when you hold it over someone’s head. SHAME ON HUGO BOSS. I’d boycott them, but I think I already have like all of my life. I don’t even know what they make ! BUT I WONT BE BUYING ANYMORE i can tell u that !
Wizcon Reply:
February 5th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
@AliSilver, Atta girl!
February 5th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
Hugo Boss is a german fashion house. Mybe they’ll move the factory back to germany
February 6th, 2010 at 8:19 am
Well, in this economy it’s hard to say what the answer is. If they are making so little money they cannot stay afloat without giving workers a pay cut, then I have to wonder what their PROFIT margin looks like. Are they wanting to maintain their previous profit margin? Or is it truly the only way they can stay in business? If so then that would mean they’ve already dropped their profit margin. But if they want to maintain their profit , and cut worker’s pay , then that means the EMPLOYEES suffer and the EMPLOYERS do not. That would mean it’s not a matter of staying in business, but a matter of keeping with high profits. This has been a problem with a LOT of companies right now. I say cut your PROFITS , down from 50% to 30% and see what THAT does for you. If you would drop the price of your product a bit, you might get to hang on to some customers in the process.
This is something I think especially luxury type of businesses should try. ESPECIALLY STARBUCKS! We all knew from day one a $5 dollar coffee was outrageous. So when SBUX started closing stores, I wonder why , instead they didnt cut their coffee price in HALF. Keep customers, keep employees, lower their PROFIT margin and everyone’s happy. Fat cats are too used to TOO much $$$. The idea of cutting profit in half is outrageous, even though the alternative might be bankruptcy. Which equals No profits !
timesr Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 10:35 am
@AliSilver, “Well, in this economy it’s hard to say what the answer is.”
When an economic crisis in Argentina closed factories and put employees out of their jobs, some decided to employ themselves and keep working anyway.
“Brukman has come to represent a new kind of labour movement here, one that is not based on the power to stop working (the traditional union tactic), but on the dogged determination to keep working no matter what. It’s a demand that is not driven by dogmatism, but by realism: in a country where 58% of the population is living in poverty, workers know that they are a pay cheque away from having to beg and scavenge to survive. The spectre that is haunting Argentina’s occupied factories is not communism, but indigence.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/apr/28/usa.globalisation
IMHO the former employees in Argentina’s occupied factory movement are the real grass roots revolutionaries in the Tea Party sense.
The article concludes:
“Their lawyers argue that the owners of these factories have already violated basic market principles by failing to pay their employees and their creditors, even while collecting huge subsidies from the state. Why can’t the state now insist that the indebted companies’ remaining assets continue to serve the public with steady jobs?”
Interesting question.
February 6th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
Well let’s face it,, at the end of the day there are some rules, regs. and loophole that will protect the COMPANY and throw out t he employees into the welfare lines. It’s just ludicrous. Instead of the president bashing on VEGAS , he could be bashing on CO’s who are taking jobs overseas. Imagine this ” don’t go blow your money at HUGO BOSS when you should be saving for your kid’s college since HUGO BOSS took their jobs overseas and left their employees in the lurch, they DO NOT deserve your hard earned dollar “” OMG, the sky would fall !