outsourced

old but interesting thread, but it is missing something, input from a company that manufactures for BSA supply. Until today, I fit into that catagory. My story may not change any minds, but let me put a human face to the discussion. For the last 15 or so years, I have manufactured the official BSA book cover. we sell an average of 40,000 units per year to BSA supply, about 2/3 of my entire business. I employ two sewers and one other person in the shop. I do all the cutting, and run the business side as well. My sewers make $12/hr, with no health insurance or other benefits. I am in my mid-50's and also have no health insurance, and in the last 2 years, my 1040 shows about $5,000 per year. In good years, I do fine. in bad years, the buck stops before it reaches my door. that's the glory of owning your own business. No greedy capitalists bleeding the down-troden workers, just a guy trying to get 4 kids to and through college. For the last 15 years, I have been proud to be associated with the BSA as a supplier. they were always fair, and lived up to their public image. Won a Mfr of the year honor one year, when they still did that sort of thing. When I started out, there was at least an unspoken requirement for products to be made domestically. Not sure if it was official policy, but I believe it was. Having seen the exodus of sewing in my previous product line (kites) move to china, the BSA provided an avenue to make a living. I believe I was a loyal and fair partner, and held my pricing constant for the entire time I made the cover. Recently we upgraded our product at BSA's request to 1000 den cordura, made in the US and 3x more expensive than the fabric we previously used. The change in fabric was made in large part to address new US consumer product safety commission regulations which came out of the scare over lead in paint on toys manufactured in, well, you know where. The regs as written would have put me out of business by themselves, as they required me to test each batch, each color, each version, of each product for lead and pthalates. testing costs would have put me under. fortunately, it appears these regs are gone without a sound, so I lived on. However, now my costs are even higher, and I raised the price about $.50, to cover the increase in fabric costs. Today, I learned that the cover is going to be produce offshore (not sure where, but China is always a good guess). Price to bSA is about what I currently pay for materials. no comment on quality, there's lots of good-quality stuff made in other countries. you can draw your own conclusions on what the sewers in the new factory are being paid, I don't know. I do know that my sewers, one of whom has made covers for me for 10 years, live from paycheck to paycheck. I feel most for them, as jobs are hard to come by, and rent is always due on the first. I dread having to tell these good people that I don't have a job for them, but that's what has to happen. I have to put my condo shop space up for sale in this market, and find a place to do the other job I still have, which will not pay for two of us (my sister is the other employee). having existed in the sewing industry for 20+ years, I knew about out-sourcing before there was a word for it. I know I've been living on borrowed time, and hoped against hope that the BSA would be loyal to me, as I was to you. In the end, though, it took persistence on my part to even find out what supply must surely have known for 3 or 4 months, that production was being moved. I've begged for warning, should this day ever come, so I would have time to adapt or shut down my operations in a controlled fashion, but now I'm left with an e-mail that we don't expect to order more this year, and will be able to give you 6-7 months lead time for any future orders. When you weigh the issues, made here vs. made there, politics, human rights, world economy vs protectionism, decline of the US vs up-raising of the third world, unions vs fat-cat capitalists, don't forget that there are real people behind the headlines. People like me. so long.