Rochester, NY Workers Vote to Sit-In With Hartmarx Workers

By Kevin Robinson in News on May 14, 2009 4:40PM

Workers at the Rochester, NY Hickey-Freeman plant, which is owned by parent company Hartmarx, voted Wednesday to join Illinois workers in a sit-in if Wells-Fargo shutters and liquidates the Des Plaines suit maker, effectively throwing 3,500 families out of work. “There are a lot of married couples that work here. If they lost their jobs, their families would be devastated,” said Debbie Glinski, who has worked at Hickey-Freeman in Rochester for 15 years.

Chicago-based Hartmarx, the largest menswear manufacturing company in the nation, and tailor to the President, filed for bankruptcy protection in January after U.S. banks curtailed its lines of credit. The clothing maker employs 3,500 across the nation. One possible outcome of the bankruptcy, according to Women's Wear Daily magazine, is that the company could be split into two brands. Hartmarx's women's brands, including Monarchy and Exclusively Misook, would be sold to Mistral, and the men's brands would be sold to Yucaipa. Those scenarios mean that Wells-Fargo would have to wait to recover the debt financing that it extended to Hartmarx. The bank, which took $25 billion in taxpayer bailout dollars and holds the bulk of Hartmarx's debt has publicly said that it is seeking to recoup the debt as quickly as possible. "Wells Fargo has received billions in direct government support to get them through this crisis," Senator Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a press statement. "Now they must help justify the taxpayers' investment and give Hartmarx the time it needs to develop the best possible bids, and must select a bid for the company that will allow it to stay open and preserve 600-plus jobs in Rochester, scores more in Buffalo and 3,000 jobs across the country."

For more background on the history of the labor movement at Hartmarx, check out David Greising's commentary at the Chicago Tribune