These are relatively big plants in small towns and their closures will be devastating for working people and businesses in each area. Many sewing machine operators in these areas have moved from plant to plant over the past few years, fighting to hold on to work as companies shut down.

In the Lauderdale County town of Florence, where 425 jobs will be lost, official unemployment already stands at 7.2 percent. Earlier this year, VF closed its sewing plant in Centreville, Alabama, idling some 300 workers. The plant, which manufactured children's clothes, was the largest employer in Bibb county. Similar layoffs have affected other states in the Southeast, where most U.S. textile manufacture is located. In the first six months of 2001, nearly 25,000 textile workers lost jobs in Georgia, Alabama, and North and South Carolina.

At the same time as the VF job cuts were announced, Russell Corp. announced another plant closing, affecting 275 workers in the southeastern Alabama town of Russellville. In 1998, Russell's Alabama plants employed more than 11,000 workers. Today the company employs fewer than 7,000 workers in the state, mainly in textile operations. Alabama apparel plants have been closing right and left over the past few years, and are down some 25,800 jobs since 1995. However, workers in these two industries still account for the largest share of the state's manufacturing workers, employing some 26,000 in apparel and 40,000 in textile.

At the end of November, the Alabama Department of Human Resources announced that December 1 will see the end of benefits for families who have exhausted the five-year lifetime limit mandated by the 1996 national welfare reform law. In 28 Alabama counties, however, unemployment is already so high that welfare recipients are exempt from the five-year limit. At $164 a month for an adult with two children, Alabama welfare benefits are the lowest in the United States.

Susan LaMont worked as a sewing machine operator at the now-closed VF plant in Centreville, Alabama.  
 
 
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