More Jobs That Will Go Overseas
Story from the News Telegram
WEBSTER — Slowly but precisely, the rumbling machines that turn plain fabric into riots of color at Cranston’s textile plant are going quiet.
The 450,000-square-foot facility, which once bustled with about 700 workers and turned out 60 million yards to 70 million yards of printed cloth a year, stopped printing fabric last week and will wind down finishing operations this week. The employees — about 30 will get new jobs in distribution and customer service but about 70 others will be laid off — have already started to scatter.
“That’s it, the end of an era,” said James M. Peloquin, a 32-year employee who worked his way up from running a machine on the third shift to supervisor and will now transfer to a customer service job.
The Webster plant’s fate was determined in January when Cranston, a division of privately held Cranston Print Works Co. of Cranston, R.I., announced it would shift all textile printing to Korea, China, Pakistan and Taiwan. The company cited global manufacturing costs and changes in the marketplace for printed cloth. Cranston reported the Webster plant, which dates to about 1812, would end production but remain a worldwide distribution center.
The company’s employees gathered last week for a farewell lunch, and President Andrew F. Sylvia, who joined Cranston nearly 31 years ago after graduating from college, said he told workers that the forces buffeting the plant were out of their control.
“I wanted them to know to carry their heads high,” he said, calling the workers “craftsmen” who continued to improve the plant and raise productivity even after the closing was announced.
About 18 workers were laid off last week, according to Michael J. Shaw, Cranston human resources manager and a 30-year employee. Other workers will clean the machines in the coming weeks, preparing them for sale. By the end of June, all plant activity should be shut down. Among those leaving will be Mr. Shaw.“I’ve been half expecting it for a little while,” Mr. Shaw said of the closing announcement. “What none of us wanted to hear were the actual words spoken.”
That might be because Cranston has been a place where generations of families worked and close friendships formed. A good word from a worker could score a hopeful applicant a job. Some employees stayed for decades. During the plant’s busiest years, employees worked overnight shifts and toiled on weekends.
Paul J. Marrier, a 33-year employee, met his wife, a 31-year employee, at Cranston and helped designers develop the “aging” machine that used an acidic vinegar-like substance to treat printed fabric.
“We had so many people you’d bump into people,” said Mr. Marrier, who will now work in distribution and has become president of the plant’s 25-member local of the Unite Here union when the president was laid off. “We had a line of people just to punch out.”
Cranston’s process started with great rolls of cotton fabric, some 2,500 yards to 3,000 yards long. Workers would mix colorings to create the dyes that would then be printed on to fabric. Muted chintz floral patterns, giant Santa prints suitable for wall hangings and Beatrix Potter rabbits all ended up on Cranston products. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a red-white-and-blue wavy flag pattern became a best seller.
An acid bath to complete the color process, followed by softening and stretching, finished the fabric, which went to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., craft stores and quilting fabrics shops.
Cranston will seek to sell equipment in the coming months, Mr. Sylvia said. The company has no specific plans for the plant, a sprawling industrial space with wood-beam ceilings and painted brick walls. Cranston fabrics, printed overseas instead of in Webster, will still go out to retailers. The company will have about 60 to 70 workers in Webster, plus another 10 in a New York City office. Departing workers will have severance packages and the opportunity to access federal job retraining benefits.
Mr. Sylvia said he hopes to see Cranston grow into a stronger company.
“Our product’s known throughout the world,” Mr. Sylvia said. “We’re not going to have a lesser-quality product. It’s going to be made in different places.”
