Well the cocky demands by textile laborers who were encouraged by marxist union organizers and leftist Catholic priest Father Fallon of New Bedford's Catholic Social Services have now caused the current factory owners (Alliant) to abandon the area.

New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang also reminded the plant owners and the area residents that the workers had the legal right to organize. What he and all of the above failed to recognize is that organizing unions is only possible when negotiating from at least one angle of a position of power which was not the case here. Eagle/ Alliant have always had other options than to concede to the pressures and demands of meddling outside unions and a minority of suddenly ungrateful workers who only weeks earlier thought the company was a philanthropist and savior.

This textile plant was opened under Michael Bianco Inc. by now federal prisoner Fransesco Insolia of Pembroke, MA who knew that he could find cheap and illegal labor in the alien friendly city on Massachusetts' south coast.  He was able to outbid competitors for military contracts making such items as backpacks, holsters and other canvas military accessories.

In March of 2007, the federal immigration agency ICE raided the plant and made international news unveiling an abused shadow society of illegal immigrants and their enablers from the government, clergy and private citizens all.

The city feared that the plant would close for good after federal indictments on all management closed the doors of MBI. Then unexpectedly, an sizable textile company decided to invest in the plant and assume the contract Bianco had now defaulted on. Eagle Industries of Fenton, Missouri saw an opportunity and saved the nearly 400 jobs in New Bedford.

News soon came from the workers that conditions there had drastically improved, pay had increased and Americans replaced the jobs that they should have already owned but were stolen by illegal immigrants and the Bianco employer.

Then a cancerous entity entered the situation. UNITE HERE, a marxist and aggressive international union started harassing employees to unionize. Eagle Industries filed suit for this harassment in August of 2008.


Most of the workers rushed to get to their cars and get past the UNITE HERE protesters and the few workers who joined them after their shifts as employees. Each day in the summer of 2008 the organizers pressured the workers to join them. Locally the typical leftists including not-for-profit "Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern Massachusetts" (tax sponge) Corinn Williams, Fr. Marc Fallon, and Eagle employee Elisa Rios tried to force the workers to forge a relationship with UH.

Among other charges of "abuse" shown HERE, the local rabble rouser Fr. Fallon stood on the steps of Eagle Industries plant and said of the situation, "To get close to the door is not the same as getting through the door," according to Becky Evans in the New Bedford Standard Times.

List of complaints by sweatfree.org:

1) Serious health and safety issues - include smoke and foul smells causing blurry vision and respitory problems; forklifts operated by untrained drivers dangerously close to work stations; suffocating heat in summer causing workers to faint.
2) Intimidation, discrimination of union supporters - "They are always watching you."
3) Pressure to limit bathroom visits - "They are always watching you, how many times you go to the bathroom, measuring everyone's time. they making us nervous."
4) Worker's not allowed to talk at work stations - "If you speak to the person next to you, they give you a warning."
5) No affordable health insurance, unpaid sick leave.

It sounds to me like someone is lying here.

Could it be Senator John Kerry: "I am happy to welcome Eagle Industries to
Massachusetts and to New Bedford. This is terrific news that New Bedford
will continue to provide our troops with the tools that save lives and keep
the military running while we keep good jobs right here in the community."

Could it be UNITE HERE as quoted in an AARP Bulletin:
"Even UNITE HERE! acknowledges that Eagle runs a better shop than Bianco — the company boosted starting salaries by a quarter to 50 cents an hour, brought in better lighting and chairs, lets people go to the bathroom in peace.

Are New Bedford Eagle employees Santa Alvarado, a "40-something" Puerto Rican city seamstress and Jose J. Lopes, a 43-year-old Cape Verdean immigrant:

Alvarado said, "I'm not really for the union. I'm happy with the way things are here. I'm very happy with what I'm getting right now."

Lopes said, "No way. They don't know what they're doing.UNITE HERE causes a lot of trouble."

While making a weekly appearance on my radio show in August of 2008, Mayor Lang disagreed with me when I said the workers should think long and hard and consider that, by unionizing, the employer could simply walk away from New Bedford, leaving these folks with no jobs. Lang said, " They have the legal right to unionize", which is true but the other truth is what I pointed out and now this is the reality the city faces:

Eagle Industries was recently purchased by Alliant Techsystems, a Minneapolis-based company with a partially unionized workforce. This company was not about to be demonized and accused by polarizing entities like Sweatfree.org, UNITE HERE and other Marxists looking to shake down the company. Alliant has announced they are closing the plant. On July 31, 2009 the doors will shut for good. Mayor Lang and Congressman Barney Frank are "hopeful" that an employer can be found.

Spinning this for the marxists, Frank had this to say in the Standard Times:

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., called ATK's closing of the New Bedford factory an "egregious example of absolute corporate savagery."

"To buy a company solely for the purpose of closing it down, presumably to eliminate a competitor, is irresponsibility of the worst sort," Frank said in a statement. "It is important to note that ATK's actions are not based on any problem with the plant in New Bedford — there is no problem with worker productivity, conditions in the city or cooperation by local officials. In my view, this makes ATK unfit as a supplier to the U.S. government, and I will make this clear to the appropriate federal agencies."


Fr. Marc Fallon who is at the top of the list of trouble making here, will still collect his check from the Catholic Social Services. Corinn Williams will still collect her taxpayer funded check. 350 workers at Alliant will now have to seek employment elsewhere in a city with an abhorant unemployment rate.

Sadly, most of the workers wanted nothing to do with the UNITE HERE union but their voice was not allowed to reach the decibals of the few who did.

As I warned the mayor, Fr. Fallon and the entire region while on the air, there is nothing to keep this company from fleeing the accusations and unions.
I could be wrong. President Obama has been seizing private companies and handing them over to unions. Maybe he will "stimulate" New Bedford if coaxed by Frank and Lang.

I'm starting to understand why this city never achieves greatness.