1 Million Apparel Jobs at Risk--Report

More than one million apparel and textile workers--mainly women, minorities and immigrants--will lose their jobs if government officials fail to reverse policies that are sabotaging the industries, a new report from the liberal Economic Policy Institute contends.

The industries--taken together, the second-largest manufacturing employer in Los Angeles County and one of the biggest nationally--could be virtually wiped out in this country by 2000 if current trends continue, according to the study.

Richard Rothstein, a Los Angeles research consultant who wrote the Economic Policy Institute study, said in an interview Thursday that the heaviest toll would be taken on “a part of the labor force for which there are no better alternatives.” He said dislocated apparel and textile workers “can’t easily be moved” into other types of jobs, largely because of their lack of job skills.

To counter the industry’s decline, the study calls for a variety of government initiatives, revisions in existing economic policies and tighter enforcement of import quotas. The study’s sponsor, the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, is a research group backed by organized labor and other interests.

Some other analysts characterized the report as off-target or overblown. Edward Hudgins, deputy director of economic policy studies for the conservative Heritage Foundation, criticized it for relying on quotas, which he contends have backfired in the past for the textile and steel industries.

Hudgins argued that quotas “keep inefficient workers and industries going in this country” and translate into higher prices for consumers.

“If we have a world flooded with cheap underwear, who cares if we make it or not?” Hudgins said. Hudgins quickly added that the U.S. apparel and textile industries should remain a significant factor, albeit a smaller one, in the economy for years to come because of improved technologies that will partly offset overseas competitors’ cheaper labor costs.

Carl Preistland, chief economist for the American Apparel Manufacturers Assn., said he agreed that the nation’s apparel industry--whose employment fell from 1.26 million in 1980 to 1.09 million last year--would continue to decline because of increased imports. He added, however, that even without government initiatives, many American women’s apparel makers could continue to thrive by offering such advantages as quicker deliveries than foreign firms provide.

The Economic Policy Institute’s study argued that U.S. apparel and textile makers could exploit those advantages--which it said also include greater labor productivity, proximity to designers and retailers, and manufacturing flexibility--to maintain its strength. The report contended, however, that government officials have mistakenly conceded that the collapse of the industries is inevitable due to foreign competition.

According to the study, the foreign firms’ gains have come largely because of flawed U.S. policies. It cited foreign debt policies that have put pressure on Mexican workers’ wages, thereby undercutting U.S. competitors with higher labor costs. The study also contended that apparel makers in the Caribbean can get more U.S. aid than domestic firms, in the form of engineering help, training programs and marketing.

A continued decline in apparel and textiles, the study said, would ripple through many allied industries and lead to big increases in government spending on welfare and other programs.

To support the apparel and textile industries, the institute called for pushing for improved international labor standards that would raise foreign workers’ wages. It also endorsed government programs that would promote cooperatives enabling small apparel contractors and subcontractors to pool their efforts and measures to bring together domestic buyers and sellers of apparel products.

In addition, it called on the government to encourage apparel exports and provide more credit to contractors’ to help them cut their interest expenses.

According to government figures, Los Angeles County last month had 87,900 jobs in apparel manufacturing and 12,100 in textile production.