domestication

Bed-N-A-Bag!!

2009-03-04T07:46:00.000-08:00

Do you have trouble finding linens that fit your home hospital bed? While twin sized sheets do the job, they don't stay in place when the head or the foot of the bed is raised. Our Bed-In-A-Bag set is specifically designed to fit hospital beds, eliminating the need to constantly fix sheets where the edges slide off.

This matched Bed-In-A-Bag set for hospital beds was designed with caregivers in mind. The bottom sheet wraps around the mattress deeper than regular fitted sheets and has 2-way stretch so the corners won't slip out from underneath. All domestic fabrics bed sheets are built with Patented NoRun fabric construction.

When placed on the mattress the fabric stretches in two directions to help keep surfaces smooth and free of wrinkles. The bedding arrives in a zippered bag that you can use for storage to protect the sheets from dust and other allergens.

The Bed-in-a-Bag also comes with a heavyweight cotton thermal blanket. The blanket's Warp knit or waffle knit construction holds on to body heat while still allowing air circulation.

High-tech mobile hospital - but no domestic fabrics sheets?!?!

2009-03-04T07:27:00.000-08:00

High-tech mobile hospital trains to save lives in combat

Mar 03

By Michelle Butzgy Paraglide

Photo credit Dawn Elizabeth Pandoliano

Capt. Billie Matthews, Spc. Lauren Bentley and Spc. Sean Whisner check vital signs on Capt. Nicole Bettinger, a "mock patient" during a mass casualty exercise in the emergency medical treatment area at the 28th Combat Support Hospital. The EMT carries the same equipment as a civilian emergency room but is designed for airdrop capabilities.

Combat Support Hospital"

Capt. Billie Matthews, Spc. Lauren Bentley and Spc. Sean Whisner check vital signs on Capt. Nicole Bettinger, a "mock patient" during a mass casualty exercise in the emergency medical treatment area at the 28th Combat Support Hospital. The EMT carries the same equipment as a civilian emergency room but is designed for airdrop capabilities.

FORT BRAGG, N.C. - "Mascal! Mascal! Mascal!" someone shouted as Soldiers ran out of tents towards a 15-passenger van, horn beeping loudly. Medical personnel whistled loudly to get everyone's attention focused on the latest casualties coming into the area Feb. 12.

A doctor ran to the van and started assessing which wounded personnel were the most critical as medics stood at the ready with wheeled stretchers and all-terrain vehicles to take the patients into the emergency medical treatment area.

"This looks like chaos but it's truly not," said Lt. Col. Carlotta Head, 28th Combat Support Hospital. The mass casualty exercise is one of the many exercises planned to train the doctors, nurses, technicians and medics of the 28th CSH. "Controlled chaos," added Col. Bruce McVeigh, 28th CSH commander.

The hospital conducted a 20-day exercise near Normandy Drop Zone. The Soldiers of the 28th CSH constructed a 44-bed hospital complete with dining facility, EMT, operating room, laboratory, radiology, chapel, motor pool and laundry as well as living facilities for the staff.

"The main reason we came up with this exercise was to get set up, to put the hospital through stressors and (as) realistic functions as we could," said McVeigh.

Some of the activities planned were live surgeries, mannequin training, medical evacuations and field hospital setup. After setup, the CSH was validated by Womack Army Medicine Center, according to McVeigh.

Medics set up an area in front of the EMT to fill in-patient information and assign them to medical teams as fast as they could.

In the EMT, mock patients writhe in various degrees of pain on tables as a staff comprised of a doctor, a nurse and two medics quickly cut clothes off to see the nature of their patient's injuries. "Those people who need immediate care will be brought in first," said Head.

"They do a secondary triage once they get inside. They get clothes off, they get a better look so even if this doc says 'This is a delay, it can wait,' this doc gets a better look and can elevate that person."

Capt. Lindsay Colburn, one of the "patients" lies on a table while a medical team works on her "injury." She volunteered to help train the medical staff at the hospital. "It helps us to prepare for real world mass casualties," she said.

At another table, a medic cut the clothes off a patient. "Don't let me leave," he screamed out.

"I'm right here," said one of the chaplains at the hospital.

"Chaplains generally respond when the hospital gets patients in the EMT to offer whatever support they can give to patients," said Col. Ruth Lee, 28th CSH chief nurse. "Sometimes if it's a mascal, they even help cut clothes, whatever they can do to offer assistance to us."

Chaplains who deploy are also taught Muslim rites for host nation casualties. The commander finds having two chaplains assigned to the hospital very helpful.

"They need someone to talk to after seeing carnage or trauma," said McVeigh.

When the hospital's staff is overburdened by casualties, the rest of the team is ready.

"We pull nurses from the intensive care units and have them assume command of the beds. They follow the patients to other areas of the hospital," said Lee. "We try to cross-train our nurses so they can work at more than one area of the hospital in the event that we do get overwhelmed. When we're overseas, we don't have a nursing pool to call in and say, 'Hey, we need more nurses today.' We make do with what we have."

Once patients are stabilized, they can go to ICUs or straight to surgery. The 28th CSH has two ICUs with a staff made up of medics and nurses; both registered and licensed practical.

"We take care of patients that are coalition forces, contractors, host nation civilians, enemy combatants, we take care of everything," said Maj. Crystal House, 28th CSH nurse.

One of the tools military medical personnel use from the EMT to ICU to other parts of the hospital is the Medical Combat Casualty Care System. MC4, a computer system, is used in Iraq, Afghanistan and stateside.

"It's a wonderful tool that we can utilize to document patient care and be able to utilize that system to send the information to other folks. They can actually sit in remote areas so they can re-transfer a patient to the next level of care. They have the ability to go in and see what we've been doing at our level and get a background history on that patient so it is an invaluable asset for us to be able to track and maintain patients and provide quality medical care," said House.

Another wealth of knowledge the hospital can use is the professional fillers system deployment system. Run by the Army Medical Department, the system identifies medical personnel with certain skills to be able to deploy wherever they're needed.

"We brought in 30 of what we call professional fillers from 10 different (hospitals) from as far as Hawaii and as close as Womack," said McVeigh. "When we go to war, we'll have about 200 or so professional fillers go with us. What they bring is expertise. They are our docs, our surgeons, our anesthesiologists, more nurses and more technicians. We couldn't have done what we did in this exercise and where we're going without those folks coming around with us. They've been critical to success for us."

Capt. Angela Rosario, a nurse in the ICU is a PROFIS flight nurse, from Hawaii. If a patient has a head injury, or needs further help, flight nurses, along with a flight medic, travel by helicopter to a larger medical center.

"When we transfer patients on flights, the nurses are very responsible for the patients," said Rosario. "We take care of everything. We have all the life support measures that we need. We monitor them and give them drugs that they would need in order for them to survive."

The hospital also has an operating room with two operating tables. The patient first comes to preoperative area. Beyond the red line, everyone must wear headgear, masks and gloves to keep a sterile environment according to Capt. John Avery. After the surgery, the team walks to the decontamination area to sterilize equipment for the next surgery.

The OR at the CSH can accommodate surgeries from appendectomies to life-saving surgeries according to Lee. "Any type of surgery that saves a Soldier's life," she said. Once a patient is stabilized but needs more intensive surgeries, the 28th CSH sends them out of theater, said Lee.

While patients are being treated from the EMT to the OR, lab and X-ray technicians are busy with patients' tests and images.

Technicians in the lab can receive blood, urine and body fluids to test for a myriad of conditions. With most casualties coming in needing pints of blood, they receive O negative, the universal donor blood type in the EMT. Once a patient is stabilized, the lab techs can type their blood so they give them the right type and also save the O negative for other trauma patients. The lab is also a storage area for blood products.

The X-ray department has both a stationary and mobile X-ray machine for immobile patients as well as a computerized tomography scanner. Like every other department in the CSH, they also use the MC4.

"We can send images to anywhere. So if something happens in Iraq, we can X-ray the patient and the images will be there before they arrive," said Cpl. Mark Gichuru, X-ray tech.

The hospital also has a pharmacy stocked with supplies. The pharmacists can print a prescription label straight from the MC4 system and have the medicine ready for pickup.

Once a patient is resting at the hospital, they can look forward to three hot meals cooked by a health care nutritionist specialist according to Lee.

Last but not least is laundry. In one of four self-contained mobile systems in the world, laundry specialists give hospital linens and clothe a very thorough cleaning.

The water gets filtered three different times through three different filters, which take out any biotoxins left behind. The water goes through the boiler at 140 degrees Fahrenheit and comes back into the tank then goes into the next cycle according to Spc. Jason Sprague, 28th CSH. Clothes and linens are dried and folded for pickup.

McVeigh said he and his staff wanted to make sure the field hospital exercise was as real as possible so they would be ready for a deployment in the fall.

"The focus is every one of these kids being ready to give the best care they can to America's sons and daughters because that's what we're going to ask them to do. In some form or fashion to include the host nation we're supporting," he said.

Lee's reason is more personal.

"I entered the Air Force during the end of the Vietnam era. I heard about the war but didn't really live in it. But now having done it a few times, at least my attitude has changed," said Lee.

The 36-year veteran paused to steel her emotions.

"My intensity has changed because I feel like we really have to get them ready to be over there. Because even one medic who doesn't know his job can really impact saving someone's life."

Is ‘Prophecy’ Coming to Pass?

2009-02-25T08:10:00.000-08:00

In response to Eric Frederick’s column, Signs Point to Textile Supply Issues, Price Increases, it wasn’t too long ago he addressed the lack of domestic production to satisfy the needs of the healthcare market. In so doing, he astutely emphasized the importance of purchasing items from a quality-conscious dealer that guarantees deliveries.

At that time, I commented on the practice, based on the eruptive environment in the Asian market that could radically affect availability. It now seems my “prophecy” may be upon us.

But there are three things that Eric fails to discuss:

1. The reasons that forced the mills, including the long-standing Cannon Mills, to shut their doors.
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2. The effect that the purchase of offshore products has had on our healthcare delivery system.
3. The political rhetoric of bringing jobs back to our shores.

Whatever caused the first mill to move its manufacturing capability to Asia to take advantage of the lower production costs, it obviously did so to increase its share of the market. Because of their being able to lower their prices, and the competitive nature of the market, others had no choice other than to follow suit.

In the interim, the large suppliers and dealers with the financial ability to underwrite an investment negotiated contracts with the producers on a direct basis. The net result? Despite its noble “Made in America” campaign, its demise was inevitable.

The costs of our healthcare system have been escalating dramatically and rapidly. Of course, this increased cost of a hospital stay is reflected in the increase in health insurance premiums. What has yet to be addressed is the fact that whatever monies are paid to offshore suppliers, there is no way that that money will ever be redeposited in the system. In effect, not only are the employed in those facilities a drain on the monies available to run the system, the possibility of their replenishing that drain is nil.

Assuming for the moment that the “rhetorical” plans to bring jobs back to our shores becomes a reality, how long will it take for the domestic weavers to get back into full production? Not any different than offshore drilling being a short-term answer to our being subjected to whims of offshore sources.

On a personal basis, suffice it to say that every time I’ve been hospitalized, I've been given a patient gown carrying a label that reads, “Made in the Philippines,” or patient “linen” that indicates it has come from one of a number of offshore sources.

If the money saved by purchasing those items comes from their being made offshore, you wouldn’t know it from the charges on my bill for “bed and board.”

Nathan L. Belkin, Ph.D.
Founder, American Reusable Textile Association
Clearwater, Fla.

more about The kissell amendment.!!

2009-02-25T07:17:00.000-08:00

With just a month under his belt in the U.S. Congress, Rep. Larry Kissell (NC-08) has spearheaded an important piece of legislation that’s going to help keep jobs in North Carolina. This is why people worked so hard to defeat the encumbrance that was Robin Hayes.

The stimulus package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (H.R. 1), included legislation offered by Congressman Larry Kissell (D-NC) mandating that any textile and apparel products contracted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) be manufactured in the United States with 100 percent U.S. inputs.

This mandate, commonly known as the Berry Amendment, first was applied to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) beginning in 1941. Because of existing U.S. international obligations, the new Kissell legislation only would cover prospective U.S. government procurement of uniforms and other textile products for the Transportation Security Administration and U.S. Coast Guard within DHS.

“I’m so proud to have my name on the Kissell Amendment. It is estimated upwards of 20,000 people will have jobs due to this measure. So many people in the textile industry worked so hard to make this expansion of the Berry Amendment a reality and as a former textile worker myself, I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart.”

For years I’ve been hearing NC Congressmen talk about keeping jobs here, but this is the first time we’ve seen a Buy American bill that really affects our textile industry. Go Larry!

People are starting to care again! I sure hope so.

2009-02-06T08:27:00.000-08:00

The Myth of Free Trade

The Problem Is That Countries and Companies Choose Growth Over Sustainability

Lindsey K. Robinson

The Bush administration seems unwilling to see the white elephant in its White House living room. Turning a blind eye on the upcoming Kyoto Protocol and continuing unilateral compromises in the Doha Free Trade agreement, Bush and Co. won't admit that the true culprit to environment degradation, as well as the regression in America's standard of living, loss in manufacturing jobs, growing national debt, and record trade deficits is due to international free trade. "Competitive protectionism is a proven idea with a lot of success. Free trade is historically a relatively new idea with a lot of failure," said Dr. Ravi Batra , international economist, in his book, The Myth of Free Trade. "Free trade has done to the us what Hitler and imperial Japan could not do during the war," he said.

Wasteful investment from intra industry trade and raw materials trade are crippling world economies in many ways. Batra claims together they represent 90 percent of global commerce, yet have no rational economic justification behind them. Since world trade has soared faster than economic activity, trade is a bigger polluter than industrialization-in spite of fuel efficiency. Trade in energy intensity industries reaches far above that of GNP of America and most nations, and continues to rise. Being green doesn't sell as pollution taxes on domestic trans nationals would further put them at a disadvantage in global markets and governments don't want to inhibit world trade, corporate profits and growth.

Destroying the world's resources unnecessarily, free trade increases pollution, and creates higher energy prices, while risking higher global rates of economic contagion (Asian Contagion, Russia and Argentina debt default), and international vulnerability to economic shocks like the OPEC crisis of 1973 or 1979. "By far international trade comes out as the worst villain in the destruction of the environment....Yet about 60 percent of international trade today is of the intra industry variety-another 30% in raw materials...The cost of transporting trade worldwide equals most countries GNPs...(indeed,) air freight fuel consumption almost tripled in just two decades from 1970-1990, emitting millions of tons of nitrogen oxides," said Batra.

According to Global Outlook 2000 every year about 3,000 million tons of crude oil or petroleum products are shipped around the globe. In the process two million tons slip into the marine environment from routine tanker operations like tanks cleaning, oil spills from tankers and platforms.* (Batra).

Indeed, the oil trade is linked to the trade in other goods. "If intra industry trade were eliminated and countries manufactured and produced from their own raw materials, global oil demand would plummet. There would be no need to transport so many goods, materials, and oil across the seas. Global energy prices would fall generating massive growth around the world. Not only would the environment benefit, production costs would also decline thanks to declining energy prices...Few people realize that international trade is the worst polluter among all economist activities," said Batra.

Batra contends that every successful country in the postwar period: Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Mayalasia, and Thailand, excluding Germany have become world leaders in trade thanks to competitive protectionism. In contrast, US, Australia and to some extent Canada who adopted freer trade have suffered a drop in real earnings in spite of rising productivity-- what Batra calls agrification syndrome, where Americans continue to loose manufacturing jobs and are suffering declining wages, in spite of their rising productivity.

During GATT's history, "Of the countries US, Great Britain, Australia, India, Italy, Canada, Mexico, France, Japan, Korea, Germany, and Taiwan-only Germany has pursued free trade through much of its history. All others except for India and Mexico became affluent by adopting competitive protectionism over the first two centuries of development," Batra said. Americas demise began with our commitment to free trade beginning in 1973.

Today's joint ventures and regional trade agreements represent a move towards a fairer protectionist free trade agreement, if foreign investment is reciprocal and anti-dumping is enforced. The goal is to bring manufacturing jobs back to America, and keep American foreign manufacturing connected to foreign markets, raw materials and consumers. When multinationals make more money off of hedging derivatives (i.e. currency exchange, swaps, indexing stocks, bonds, interest rates, and commodities), price transfer, cross ownership of subsidiaries or securitizing debt than on products and services, the system is faulty. In fact, cyber money laundering has become such a potential threat as to cause global stock market and international banking financial crises. Everyone is linked by globalization in today's international casino economy.

Batra argues free trade liberalization has caused real falling wages, declining living standards, and the exporting of foreign investment, manufacturing, technology, jobs and capital abroad creating domestic recessions and deflation, seriously disrupting and distorting our economy. "It is free trade, not productivity that has been the real cause of falling wages in industry," said Batra. "If your wages fall sharply while you're working harder and becoming more efficient, the system is broke...Indeed, US productivity has been reaped by foreign labor and the multinationals," he said.

America's steel, auto, electronics, to aviation industries are examples how America has suffered from foreign dumping (i.e. underselling domestic markets with "overcapacity" in the name of free trade). It's made worse where multinationals will own numerous subsidies worldwide, and adjust prices in one country to maximize profits and minimize losses (price transfer), or disguise ownership through shell corporations. Likewise, US multinationals get numerous tax breaks by the American government either to keep their headquarters or manufacturing here or to attract foreigners to set up plants in the US, often unilaterally.

This is a mixed blessing as MNCs can get corporate welfare and sweetheart deals, but use free trade to park profits in tax havens like Boca Ratan, the Cayman islands or Hong Kong. Indeed, many multinationals make more money off of currency exchanges from their foreign subsidiaries than off of business profits. Altogether, trans nationals can inflate profits for earnings reports, or acquisition, or doctor balance sheets, creating losses for tax write offs, IRS or SEC auditing, restructuring or securitization of debt.

In order to revamp America's global competitiveness, Batra's solution is to break up monopolistic corporations world wide to generate intense domestic competition and pre-empt any need for foreign competition. In addition, intra industry trade should be downsized. "MNCs should produce and sell goods in the same nation or swap production facilities in different countries." The current practice of auto manufactures who export to Europe while also importing from European facilities (intra industry trade) is wasteful, and should be eliminated. If European or Japanese set up manufacturing in America, the US should be able to do the same in their countries. If GM plants in Germany or Asia are uneconomical, the US should sell them to Germany/Asia for other types of productivity.

Likewise Batra promotes the advancement of international technology transfer, and the increase of capital transfer in addition to manufacturing, creating foreign domestic jobs, consumer markets, and advancement towards building a banking, credible stock market, and IT (information technology) infrastructure to help non-OECD countries evolve as members of the global market place.

Japan continues to skirt reciprocity rules by investing in NAFTA's manufacturing plants, not in America, but Mexico, where labor is cheap, environmental regulations are low, there are no tariffs and access to high paying consumers are just across the boarder. They have also done this with the Asian Tiger countries and ASEAN, without reciprocity. Instead of shipping goods around the world, Japan should focus on exporting technology and capital in exchange for raw materials for home production. "Investing in mineral rich countries near population centers minimizes international trade. Here the rich mineral, but poor countries should impose high tariffs on foreign developers in order to generate domestic competition. Tariffs would then encourage domestic consumption, and reduce exports," said Batra.

"Migration of factories to mineral rich areas can trim international trade by as much as 25% without reducing global living standards. We can eliminate intra industry trade altogether without much effect on planetary production. Global trade can be cut by at least 75%with out much harm to overall output-benefiting the environment tremendously. Energy use would plummet, oil prices would tumble, oceans would be safer from oil and chemical spills, the atmosphere would be safer," said Batra..

"When free trade fosters services at the expense of manufacturing, productivity growth as well as real earnings decline. Indeed, manufacturing not trade is the main source of prosperity, While trade volume has doubled since 1972, only 17% of the labor force today is employed in the industrial sector. Wages for services and agriculture have declined in real numbers by 19%. Manufacturing salaries are often 150-200% higher than service industry jobs. In retailing, real after-tax earnings now match those of the Great Depression," said Batra.

Being the largest energy consumer and polluter in the world the US had a special responsibility to clean up the environment. Raising average tariffs to 40% would reduce pollution, while promoting competitive protectionism at home and eliminating wasteful intra industry trade.

The upcoming Doha trade rounds in Cancun might consider Batra's notion of the "agrification" of America. However, where US farmers receive hundreds of billions in subsidies, the rest of the country's industries and services are suffering the same plight without the economic crutches. Like increases in farm productivity that aren't rewarded with increased profits, American manufacturing is similarly suffering real declining wages, despite improved efficiency and output. "In fact productivity growth causes their earnings to decline," said Batra.

A history of US unilateral trade concessions reach back to the beginning of GATT to keep free trade and Most Favorite Nation agreements moving forward. The objective to dismantle agricultural subsidies only when the playing field is leveled is missing the mark. . Batra argues protectionism needs another look.

"In spite of the fact that productivity since 1973 has grown by 55% in America, 140% in Germany and a staggering 360% in Japan, at least half, and as much as 80% of the population today is worse off than the 1973," said Batra. America has lost out to cheap foreign labor in manufacturing jobs.

Batra continues the hype that free trade is a myth. "Since 1973 and free trade, the link between real wages and productivity was severed, where its commitment to free trade soared faster than domestic economic activity. Real wages for 80% of the labor force have been steadily shrinking in spite of rising productivity. Free trade skews the real value of manufactured goods, through cheaper foreign labor or weaker foreign currencies in relative prices, despite increased productivity and innovation, in turn creating a shrinking consumer base."

Through tariffs, and a break up of monopolies into small competitive units, America needs to consider a new era in competitive protectionism to increase higher earning jobs at home, competition within industries at home further reducing trade deficits and avoiding foreign tariffs, while keeping consumption at home.

The Newly Industrialized Countries /Asian Tigers (Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia, Mayalasia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand) grew at double digit rates for decades thanks to protectionism, capital formation, domestic rivalry among firms, and government investment. Growth was also accompanied by foreign investment by America and Japan. The Asian economies are recovering from the 1998 crisis in Southeast Asia, much to foreign reinvestment, debt restructuring. Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong's resilience is also do to having large dollar and gold reserves. Like Japan these Asian tigers continue to have huge trade surpluses with the US.

Joint ventures don't necessarily reduce the intra industry trap. GM has joint ventures with Toyota, Suzuki, Ford and Mazda, Chrysler with Mitsubishi. Yet much foreign ownership or manufacturing is not reciprocal. Five Japanese firms Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Toyota and Europe's Subaru have independent production facilities in the US.

The expression, "when you owe so much money to the bank, they owe you," underlines the fact that Japan owns two-thirds of America's national debt. America has become the world leader in household and national debt, trade deficits, corporate and personal bankruptcies, and the growing inequality gap between rich and poor. Free trade has caused hundreds of thousands of layoffs at Kodak (now bankrupt), Xerox, GE, Chrysler, Exxon, AT&T and IBM, yet these industries are twice as productive as the early 1970s.

US-local firms producing steel, auto, machinery, cameras TVs, VCRs, textiles and shoes, and aircraft have fallen prey to imports from Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, China and Hong Kong at an alarming pace. Local business have been run out by conglomerate retailers like Wal-Mart who import cheap textiles, and hire cheap domestic labor with no benefits to work their huge retail stores.

"During the early 1930s product prices fell sharply by 24% in a matter of four years from 1929-1933. This price deflation in turn set the US unemployment rate soaring to 25 %," said Batra. Today's part time and McDonald-type jobs mask the real higher unemployment rates. Instead of using Nixon's New Economic Policy intervention in 1971 to address stagnant growth and mounting trade deficits with wage and price freezes, today's Federal Reserve works to continue reducing interest rates now at 1.5% Fed rate a historic low, while Bush promotes tax cuts for businesses and stock dividends to stimulate economic growth. Refinancing and a cheapening of consumer goods have only encouraged Americans to buy more.

In contrast Japan and the Europe continue a more protectionist trade, together with high tariffs, stronger savings and domestic investment. Where Nixon in 1971 was trying to force GATT partners like Europe with their Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the Japanese auto and electronics industries to make concessions, America still gets the short end of the stick making unilateral concessions at Doha and the Uruguay Round fighting agriculture, beef and services (i.e. banking, semiconductors and telecommunications equipment) compromises with Europe and tariff reductions with Japan.

"Many don't believe America's living standard has steadily declined since 1973-discounting soaring homelessness, growing urban decay , crumbling roads, and bridges, declining home ownership and shrinking middle class-instead believing that the national measure of well is the GNP," said Batra. During our last major recession in 1992, "GNP was an all time high-who could believe that a nation with the highest ever debt per person is actually at the peak of its prosperity and where American household were the world's biggest borrowers?" said Batra.

Yes some of America's economic quagmire is self-inflicted with its horrible savings rates of less than 3% of disposable income as opposed to over 14% in Germany and Japan, huge credit card debt, low investment, growing federal deficits and overall national debt that has kept interest rates higher in the US than Germany or Japan-creating higher taxes, terms for borrowing, and R&D disadvantages for companies. Yet additional reasons for the declining standard of living, "like America's rate of investment, immigration, the baby boom, or the 1980s merger mania (waves in the 1870s, 1920s, 1950s) nor the oil crisis of '73/'79 (rose sharply 1910 and 1940) fall short, as these events have happened many times before-not generating a three-decade long slide...The true culprit is free trade," said Batra.

And the facade from multilateralism to regional free trade skirts the point of competitive protectionism. NAFTA simply compounds the ills created by America's monopolistic regional free trade. While the US and Canada feel fairly insulated from asymmetric investment shocks, Mexico has suffered great disruptions as a result of opening it border, (i.e. Ross Perot's sucking sound of American jobs going south). During the Mexico crisis of the 1980s foreign MNCs were so big as to outsize or create a stock market crisis thanks to foreign capital flight. The Asian Contagion in '98 similarly created a cul-de-sac of capital flight in Mexico (Japanese and Asian Tiger investments). Likewise, the former East Germany following the 1990 unification was abruptly exposed to intense competition from West Germany and other countries. Both suffered from backward technology, inefficient bloated state monopolies, and the exploitation of cheap labor without benefits.

Batra argues that free trade can cripple an economy if manufacturing erodes. Japan's investment in NAFTA's Maquiladora programs set up manufacturing in Mexico capitalizing on cheaper labor, no unions, closer distribution access to America and tariff free benefits.

Instead of breaking up the Fortune 500 firms to enhance domestic rivalry increasing competitive protectionism within America, deregulation of the 1990s (banking, telecoms, utilities) have created an era of further consolidation and mergers and acquisitions where MNCs haven't been this big since trust busting era of the Carneges, Rockefellers and Melons after the turn of the 1900s.

The old axiom, "what's good for GM is good for America," no longer seems appropriate. Yet, multinationals fear if they don't continue playing the game of the casino economy in the foreign exchange markets, and through unilateral concessions with foreign trans nationals, America's interest to remain the hegemony in the new world order will be in jeopardy.

Thursday, February 5, 2009 Listen to the show Subsidies give textiles a thread of hope

2009-02-06T07:56:00.000-08:00

BOB MOON: Ya know, it all depends on your perspective. If China is cheating with its currency, giving its own businesses an edge over foreign competitors. . . . It's a good thing we've got our own house in order on free trade, right?

Actually, take a close look at the latest U.S. Farm Bill and you'll find hints that we're protecting our own industries. Example: A textile subsidy program. It's designed to help cotton mills better compete in the face of growing competition from, uh-huh, China. Not that the fabric and apparel industry can't use the help.

Here's North Carolina Public Radio's Leoneda Inge.

LEONEDA INGE: You need ear-plugs when you walk the spinning floor at Parkdale Mills in Lexington, N.C. Parkdale is one of the top yarn producers in the world.

Raw cotton is cleaned and then pulled into long braids that are automatically fed into machines. The cotton turns into thin yarn before your eyes.

SHANE HAMRICK: It's automatically wrapped, automatically labeled. It's taken off the line and you're ready for shipment.

Shane Hamrick is the plant manager here.

Hamrick has spent all of his career in textiles. He's never been laid off in an industry that's dwindled by 50 percent in the last decade.

HAMRICK: Yeah, with the current climate I feel as good about being here as I would anywhere. I've got friends that work at Wachovia and Bank of America and I think they are a little more unstable than we are right now. So, I feel good about the future.

In 2005 you could hardly find anybody in textiles who felt good about the future. Imports of cotton underwear, socks and pants from China were flooding the market. Tens of thousands of textile workers lost their jobs in the U.S.

Import caps were put in place to slow down the flood, but those expired last month.

Now textile manufacturers are getting support from new subsidies in the Farm Bill. The goal is to help companies like Parkdale stay competitive. The program will pay to up-grade equipment at mills that convert cotton to yarn. Basic manufacturing, but it's a part of the textile industry where the U.S. still leads in terms of output and quality.

Michael Walden is an agricultural economist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Walden says the U.S. has a future at the other end of the textile industry.

MICHAEL WALDEN: What's left has moved away from common apparel products to more what I'll call high-tech textile and apparel products, innovative products. Products that have industrial use, products that have military use.

Like the fabric N.C. State developed for the Air Force to make a tent that protects against fire.

Blanton Godfrey is dean of the College of Textiles at N.C. State. He says innovation is the key to the future of the textile industry. We're not talking socks and T-shirts, but components to make cars and sporting equipment.

BLANTON GODFREY: Instead of a truck body being made out of aluminum or in the old days, steel, it's now going to be made out of composites which are textile based, fiber based.

Innovation in new fibers is the future. But the textile industry also sees growth in the fiber that started it all.

This semester the College of Textiles sponsored its first Cotton Couture Fashion Show.

Caitlin Lubatty is a senior in the program. Lubatty says the textile industry is far from dead, it's just different.

CAITLIN LUBATTY: I think of it as an interrelated network of suppliers and manufacturers and designers and everybody is really working together at this point.

Figuring out new ways to work together could be the biggest survival technique of all, in a recession where orders for everything are down.

I'm Leoneda Inge for Marketplace.

India Faces 500,000 Textile Job Losses in Five Months

2009-02-06T07:51:00.000-08:00

The Indian textile industry, the country's second-largest foreign exchange earner, will lose half a million jobs by April 2009 due to the global financial crisis, a government official warned on Nov. 21. The sector is estimated to employ around 38 million workers and accounts for about 8% of the gross domestic product of Asia's third-largest economy.

Commerce Secretary G.K. PillaiPillai said the sector was facing a severe crunch because of deepening problems in the world economy, but stressed that New Delhi was cobbling together a package for the "distressed export sector." The Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industries in a recent study said the sector's growth slipped from 8% in 2005 to 0.8% during April-August this year and warned of massive layoffs in the coming months. The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) trade lobby also said India's garment exports too dipped by up to 35% during July-September in the current financial year. The textile sector accounts for 20% of India's industrial production and more than 30% of the country's export earnings. Pillai said the overall export growth rate was likely to slide to 10% in the financial year ending March 31, 2009. "The target of $200 billion will come down," he said.

Indian exports grew by over 30% in the first half of the financial year but demand has slumped amid the global slowdown. The U.S. and the EU account for 65% of India's total garments exports. "In the previous financial year, garment exports were $9 billion, but this year they will be around $7.5 billion on account of a slump in demand from the U.S. and EU countries," CII Secretary General D. K. Nair said. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, meanwhile, urged Indian firms to cut prices to ensure job losses are minimized. "The surest way to ensure that you produce and grow is to cut prices but if someone wants to shut down his factory for three days a week then that is a short-sighted approach," Chidambaram said. "

Industry must reward its loyal workers... avoid retrenchments and layoffs," he told the NDTV news channel after the government warning about textiles.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2008

Cumberland County's textile mills have faded away

2009-02-06T07:18:00.000-08:00

By Gregory Phillips
Staff writer

Leonard Garner remembers when he realized the textile industry in Cumberland County was dying. As a manager, he had already closed one plant, Tolar-Hart in Massey Hill. He was still a few years away from closing the Elk Yarn plant on Legion Road in 1996, the last in Hope Mills.

“Machinery was so expensive, labor was so hard to get,” he said. “We were suffering tremendously.”

There was a time, Garner said, when textile mills could get by with a bottom line that may not have been quite in the red but in the pink.

“But it got to where it had to be bold black to stay in business,” he said.

Garner said he was “born and raised on my mother’s lunch break in the textile industry.” Cut him open and you might find yarn wrapped around his heart. And he’s not alone.

He’s one of a rapidly disappearing generation of workers who spent decades in the textile mills of Massey Hill and Hope Mills and have since watched the industry slow to a crawl. Wednesday’s announcement that M.J. Soffe is cutting the 107 manufacturing jobs at its Fayetteville plant brings it to a virtual standstill.

That news signaled the end of an industry without which Fayetteville and the surrounding area might never have prospered.

In a generation or two, hardly anyone will remember first-hand the days when textile manufacturing was not only the most powerful engine in Cumberland County’s economy but the core around which towns were built. The mills changed names often as they were bought and sold. And the names of companies and mills are woven into the fabric of local history: Rockfish Manufacturing, Elk Yarn, Dixie Yarns, Burlington Industries, Uniblend.

Spurred by demand for locally grown cotton, mills sprang up in and around Fayetteville thanks to the Cape Fear River and its creeks, which provided a source of power. Part of the flume from the first mill built on the north bank of what is now Hope Mills Lake is still visible.

All but one of the early mills in Fayetteville and Rockfish, as Hope Mills was then known, were destroyed by Sherman’s troops in the Civil War.

“They would have been useful to the Confederacy,” historian Bruce Daws said. “He considered those military targets.”

After the war, the local textile industry grew afresh. Four Rockfish mills spawned the town of Hope Mills, the Holt-Williamson mill opened in Campbellton and three mills opened that would give birth to the Massey Hill neighborhood.

“Everybody thinks of Massey Hill as Massey Hill, but it was three very distinct mill villages,” Daws said.

The villages were named for the mills they grew around: Victory Village, Puritan Village and Tolar-Hart Village. Margaret Bucy was born in Tolar-Hart, which later became Lakedale Village when the mill changed owners.

“It was more like a big family,” she said. “You knew everyone in the village.’’

Bucy, 93, has lived in the same house on Powell Street for 75 years. She worked in the Lakedale plant for 30 years, putting thread on spindles, and watched as her village blended with its neighbors.

Although the visible signs of mill history are rapidly disappearing, some remain. The towering brick chimney between Southern Avenue and Gillespie Street and the nearby dilapidated mill office that Daws reckons would make “a wonderful mill museum.”

But it’s not just buildings that have disappeared. Jobs went, too. Bucy lost hers at the Lakedale plant when it closed in 1975.

“I’d been going to work for 30 years and all of a sudden I didn’t have a job,” Bucy said.

The losses have hit regionally and statewide. The Swift Denim plant in Erwin closed in 2000, costing 740 jobs and gutting the town it had spawned. The following year, the Converse plant in Lumberton closed, taking 500 jobs with it.

The number of manufacturing jobs in Cumberland and Hoke counties has declined by more than 40 percent over the past 15 years, from 15,500 in December 1993 to 9,200 last month, consistent with statewide losses in the same span. But the relative durability of food and pharmaceutical manufacturing masks the profound drops in textile jobs, according to Larry Parker, a spokesman for the N.C. Employment Security Commission.

While local textile manufacturing job loss totals were not available, the number of those jobs statewide dropped 78 percent in the past 15 years, from 182,900 to 40,600.

“That says it all,” Parker said.

Robert Musselwhite found himself out of a maintenance job when the Lakedale plant closed. But there were still other options back then; he worked another 20 years at the Burlington plant in St. Pauls.

“I was out of work one day,” he said.

Musselwhite started working in the Lakedale plant when he was 14.

“That was about the only jobs you had around here was textiles,” said Musselwhite, who is 81.

When Edwin Brower Jr. came home to Hope Mills after a stint in the Navy and degrees from N.C. State and Duke universities, it was expected that he would work in the mills — because his father had just bought them.

Hope Mills owes its existence to textile mills — with four of them known by number — dotted across the village that they boosted to a town. A mill superintendent, Sim Cotton, became the town’s first mayor in 1891.

“Everybody that lived in Hope Mills at one time worked in the mills or knew someone who did,” current Mayor Eddie Dees said.

Brower remembers the 1950s and ’60s as boom decades of local textile manufacturing. But he said he saw the writing on the wall as foreign competition began undercutting prices.

“You can’t compete with somebody that can sell it for a nickle or a dime less than you,” he said.

That left the likes of Leonard Garner with the most distasteful of jobs.

“I became a hatchet man,” he said. “I would take a plant and close it down. It was such a strain to tell people after 20 or 30 years that the plants were closing.”

After Garner had told the 186 employees at Elk Yarn Mills on Legion Road that they were out of a job, the company wanted him to close a plant in South Carolina with 600 employees.

“I said no way,” Garner said. He retired.

But as a manager, Garner at least saw the coming apocalypse and understood it, much as he resented it. Some in Massey Hill still find the death of the local textile industry hard to fathom.

“I couldn’t understand why they were all leaving,” Bucy said. “I never thought I’d live to see all the textile mills leave Massey Hill. I thought they were here forever.”

Textile Coalition Seeks Expansion Of Buy America

2009-02-06T07:17:00.001-08:00

James A. Morrissey, Washington Correspondent

A coalition of US textile manufacturers and organized labor is urging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to incorporate expanded "Buy America" provisions in the economic stimulus package currently working its way through Congress.

The organizations said the US manufacturing sector "has been bled by trade policies" over the past eight years that have resulted in a $3.5 trillion trade deficit and a loss of 4 million manufacturing jobs.

In a letter to Pelosi, the coalition members said "it is imperative to expand and strengthen statutes and regulations that mandate the purchase of US produced goods and services." They called for expanded "Buy America" provisions in procurement of products for highway transportation and for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The coalition notes that the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982 forbids the Secretary of Transportation to obligate any funds to carry out construction under that act unless the steel and iron and manufactured products being used are produced in the United States. The same requirements apply to some $30 billion to $40 billion funneled annually to states by the Federal Highway Administration for construction of roads, bridges and relate projects. The coalition says Congress has broad flexibility under existing laws to expand such requirements beyond iron and steel components to include such things as machinery, textiles and other raw materials used in highway construction.

The coalition also is seeking expansion of the so-called Berry Amendment's "Buy America" provisions covering defense appropriations and making a similar requirement apply to DHS procurement. The coalition contends that applying the Berry Amendment to DHS procurement would not require any new appropriations, but it would create US jobs right away.

The coalition comprises the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, the National Council of Textile Organizations, the National Textile Association, the United States Industrial Fabrics Institute and UNITE HERE!.

Congressman Larry Kissell!! Thank you Sir!!

2009-02-06T07:13:00.000-08:00

The U.S. House of Representatives adopted by voice vote an amendment offered by Congressman Larry Kissell (D-NC) to H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, that would mandate that any textile and apparel products purchased by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Transportation Security Administration (TSA) be made with 100 percent U.S. content. The amendment extends the current Berry Amendment program to the Department of Homeland Security but only would cover prospective procurement of uniforms and other textile product for TSA workers by the U.S. government.

“We would like to thank Congressman Kissell in particular for offering this amendment which has been long sought after by the textile industry. The Kissell Amendment will provide an important stimulus to the U.S. textile and apparel manufacturing sector, which employs almost 470,000 workers in the United States,” said Anderson Warlick, Chairman of the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO).

“In addition to our appreciation to the entire House, we would also like to extend a special thanks to the House leadership and Congressmen Bennie Thompson (D-MS), David Price (D-NC), John Spratt (D-SC), Howard Coble (R-NC), and Mike Michaud (D-ME) for their hard work and support in securing passage this amendment that will create many new badly needed U.S. jobs,” said Bruce Raynor, President of UNITE HERE.

“The Kissell Amendment will immediately help textile and apparel companies because it will cover all uniforms purchased by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees. This program can be expanded by the Obama Administration to cover other DHS agencies such as FEMA, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Immigration Service – nearly one hundred thousand uniformed employees in all – and we will be asking the President to make that change,” said Auggie Tantillo, Executive Director of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC).

“Another benefit of the Kissell Amendment is that it does not require any additional taxpayer money because it involves programs that are already in place and which are already fully funded,” said Karl Spilhaus, President of the National Textile Association (NTA).

“Now that the House has added this critical amendment to the stimulus package, it is incumbent upon the U.S. Senate to adopt it too. We look forward to working closely with our friends in the Senate to make sure that this happens,” said Kevin M. Burke, President and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA).

“Enactment of the Kissell Amendment will have an important impact on jobs across the United States because textile and apparel companies often rely on sales of uniforms and other textile products to the government to provide critically needed employment and production,” said Ruth Stephens, Executive Director of the U.S. Industrial Fabrics Institute (USIFI).

“It should also be noted that the Kissell Amendment was carefully crafted so as not to violate any U.S. trade agreements or obligations,” said Larry McClendon, Chairman of the National Cotton Council (NCC).

The U.S. textile and apparel sector has been hit particularly hard by the economic downturn with 60,000 jobs lost during the past twelve months. In the past year, 44 textile plants have closed, including 14 in North Carolina, 10 in South Carolina, 4 in Georgia, 7 in Alabama, and 7 in Virginia.

Coloring Your Fabric—Without Dyes!

2009-02-06T07:11:00.001-08:00

By convention there is color, by convention sweetness, by convention bitterness, but in reality there are atoms and space.-Democritus

With the current emphasis on coloring fabric in a more "eco-friendly" and sustainable manner, alternatives to traditional dyes and dyeing processes are being sought. Also driving these alternatives is concern that some dyes (e.g., azo dyes) produce allergic reactions when contacting the skin of sensitive individuals. But where does one find models for these new coloring schemes? Look no further than the butterfly…

Nature often provides us with inspiration that can have practical application (biomimicry). Obviously, the vibrant colors of butterfly wings are not produced by the magic of dyes. Neither are the myriad colors displayed in an opal gemstone. A butterfly's colors (as are the colors in soap bubbles) are produced by a physical process known as iridescence. The process for opal gemstones is uniquely called the play of colors. In both cases, the surface properties of these materials are responsible for producing the colors ("structural color") not a dye ("intrinsic color").

Using natural iridescent features in textiles is not a new development. For example, the wings of beetles from certain beetle families (the Buprestidae family-jewel beetles) have been used as textile embellishments in India, Thailand, Burma, New Guinea, Peru, and Ecuador for centuries.

Dyes absorb light at characteristic frequencies, allowing unabsorbed light frequencies to reach the eye as intrinsic color. The iridescent colors of specially-designed biomimetic surfaces arise from the surface's ability to behave like a diffraction grating—an optical device that acts like a flat prism by breaking up light into its component colors using a grooved surface. In butterfly wings, this is performed by an array of thin scales. The thickness and structure of its surface, and the angle at which it is viewed, determine its color. For textiles, surfaces can be engineered to have similar properties.

Fibers are now available that can add a glimmer of iridescence to fabrics without using dyes. One of these is Tenjin's Morphotex fiber. These fibers use nanotechnology to build layers of nylon and polyester, creating a difference in refractive index that leads to the creation of color through light interference.

Structural fiber development has taken another step forward with the use of variously-shaped nanoparticles to create color. Juan Hinestroza and his group at Cornell University's College of Human Ecology's Department of Fiber Science and Apparel Design have added color, as well as protective abilities, to create "nano-fashion" by applying metal nanoparticles to cotton and to electrospun nylon nanofibers. Color "tuning" depends on the metal used, its size, and shape. The incorporation of opal nanoparticles in polymers to achieve a similar effect is also under study. Although of limited practicality at present, these approaches may eventually lead to affordable alternatives to dyes for textile coloration base on the application of structural color principles.

2008-12-19T14:57:00.000-08:00

In enclosed, isolated environments, microbes can pose a major health hazard. Think, for example, what could happen with bacterial growth aboard the International Space Station.

The folks at NASA thought a lot about it. And we’re now working with them on special items – clothes, sheets and towels – made from our SILVERion™ antimicrobial fabrics.

To train for the challenges of life aboard the Space Station, astronauts spend time in a confined environment at NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations. The underwater lab, owned by NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), is situated deep in the Atlantic Ocean.

It’s an environment that is moist, enclosed, and isolated – an environment in which bacteria, mold and mildew can thrive and quickly become a problem.

NAFTA, etc...

2008-12-19T14:36:00.001-08:00

Veterans of the textile trade here blame most of their woes on cheap labor overseas.

Many in the business say that textiles had begun to wane before the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect Jan. 1, 1999. They also say that China's admittance into the World Trade Organization in 2001 has caused more damage in North Carolina.

"I didn't lose my job because of NAFTA. I left my job because of NAFTA, among other reasons," said Gil Respess, a former employee of Domestic Manufacturing in Kinston. "The industry had taken a turn for the worst. I just kind of got tired of twiddling my thumbs."

Respess, who worked in the textile business for about 12 years, now teaches. His former employer, Domestic, is one of the few remaining textile producers in Eastern North Carolina.

To stay alive, Domestic's owner, Fred Hunneke, chose the only option many in the industry see available: re-invention. Domestic manufactures specialty fabrics for niche markets to give the company an edge over foreign competition.

"People say, 'If you go to Mexico, you can make it for less,' " Hunneke said. "Well, I'm not in that business. Wouldn't it be nice to create a few jobs locally so we can keep the textile business alive? There are people like that."

Over at Invista - formerly the giant local employer, DuPont - manager Robert Amos says NAFTA has been "neutral to slightly negative on this plant." Only one of the company's competitors has moved to Mexico since NAFTA's inception, Amos said. About 20 have moved to China or elsewhere in Asia.

"Stuff that's made in Mexico is not what's being sold at Wal-Mart," Amos said. "It's coming out of China. The perception is out there that if we hadn't had NAFTA, all these textiles companies would be doing wonderfully. I'm not one who shares that view.

"It's a direct frontal attack from Asia," Amos said. "They can pay $100 a month for what the textile manufacturer here is paying $50 to $100 a day."

Other factors giving China an edge include lack of labor and environmental laws and the absence of a social security system, said Bruce Parson, Kinston-Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce president.

Buy American Act

2008-12-19T11:57:00.000-08:00

The Buy American Act (BAA - 41 U.S.C. § 10a–10d) was passed in 1933 by the U.S Congress, which required the United States government to prefer U.S.-made products in its purchases. Other pieces of Federal legislation extend similar requirement to third-party purchases that utilize Federal funds, such as highway and transit programs.

In certain government procurements, the requirement purchase may be waived if purchasing the material domestically would burden the government with an unreasonable cost (the price differential between the domestic product and an identical foreign-sourced product exceeds a certain percentage of the price offered by the foreign supplier), if the product is not available domestically in sufficient quantity or quality, or if doing so is in the public interest.

The President has the authority to waive the Buy American Act within the terms of a reciprocal agreement or otherwise in response to the provision of reciprocal treatment to U.S. producers. Under the 1979 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Government Procurement Code, the U.S.-Israel Free Trade Agreement, the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement, and the World Trade Organization (WTO) 1996 Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), the United States provides access to the government procurement of certain U.S. agencies for goods from the other parties to those agreements. However, the Buy American Act was excluded from the GPA's coverage.