Linda Chin, Eugenio Morro, Ruby Sims and Tony Brancato, members of Workers United’s local executive board, in the Hartmarx factory in Des Plaines, Ill. Each has been at Hartmarx for more than 30 years. Ali Elkin/The Daily Northwestern
Workers for a clothing manufacturer that employs several Northwestern alumni and Evanston residents – and involves the dean of the Kellogg School of Management – have spoken out against impending uncertainty.
Hart Schaffner & Marx, or Hartmarx, which produces luxury garments for several brands, filed for bankruptcy protection in January. It is now the property of Wells Fargo & Company. In its quest for solvency, the bank may need to sell Hartmarx.
Kellogg Dean Dipak Jain, a member of Hartmarx’s board of directors since 2002, said he was unable to comment on the business’s current position.
After finishing work at the Des Plaines factory Tuesday afternoon, Hartmarx union representatives said they had been dealing directly with Wells Fargo since filing for bankruptcy protection, and they had few complaints about previous leadership at Hartmarx.
Workers at the Des Plaines factory, the birthplace of President Barack Obama’s inaugural ball tuxedo, voted unanimously Monday in favor of staging a sit-in should Wells Fargo decide to liquidate the company. Workers at Hartmarx’s Rochester, N.Y., factory followed suit Wednesday.
“We took a vote on live TV,” said Ruby Sims, president of a local chapter of Workers United, the union that represents Hartmarx’s 3,500 workers. “If they choose to liquidate the company instead of selling it to someone who will let us keep our jobs, we’ll do a sit-in.”
Because Wells Fargo received federal funding to the tune of $25 billion to stay afloat, the workers said they thought the bank should not repay their tax money with unemployment.
“If the president gave them $25 billion to bail them out, then bail us out,” Sims said. “They get to keep their jobs, so let us keep ours.”
Jain said major changes in the economic world merit rethinking – but not restructuring – the curriculum at Kellogg.
“This is a challenging environment,” he said. “We don’t change the curriculum every time a major event occurs, but we don’t ignore it either.”
He pointed to the 2001 Enron bankruptcy; Kellogg’s Arthur Andersen Hall, named after the financial firm implicated and bankrupted by the scandal, stands as a grisly reminder. But another result, Jain said, is Kellogg’s emphasis on ethics in business.
Jain also said the current economic state offers opportunities for reflection and learning.
“Given that the world is interdependent and that we have global reach, we need to prepare our students to have a better understanding of risk and how to manage it,” Jain said.
Hartmarx union representative Joe Scalise said this interdependence is one of the biggest concerns of the workers.
“There are mothers, sons, sisters, husbands, wives,” Scalise said, standing at a cutting table the length of several school buses and lifting a sheet of tissue paper to reveal the navy pin-striped wool below. “If one loses their job, everyone loses their job, and they have mortgages to pay.”
Tony Brancato, who has worked 43 years – since he was 15 – said, “A lot of those mortgages are with Wells Fargo.”
The union representatives said Wells Fargo had received two bids from companies willing to buy Hartmarx and allow it to function as it always has, as well as one that wants to liquidate the company.
“We want Fargo to sell to one of the two companies that will continue business as usual,” Brancato said.
Joe Costigan, the treasurer for Service Employees International Union’s Midwest branches, said the problem does not lie with the company or the product, but with the bank it now belongs to.
“In January, the banks weren’t lending money to businesses,” Costigan said. “Without providing a ladder of credit, the company had to file for bankruptcy.”
He said the storied quality of Hartmarx’s products should be enough to keep the company afloat.
“Hartmarx has been around for 120 years,” Costigan said. “It has survived the Depression and every financial crisis since. It should be able to survive this.”
