The senator has asked for a federal emergency grant to help retrain former employees.
WILTON – U.S. Sen. Susan Collins has requested that federal officials approve a $730,073 emergency grant to help retrain G.H. Bass & Co. workers.
Bass parent company Phillips-Van Heusen Corp. announced in late December that it would shut down its Maine operations in 2004 eliminating more than 250 jobs in Wilton and South Portland. Between 64 and 67 full-time workers in Wilton are expected to lose their jobs.
Collins, R-Maine, has asked U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao for the National Emergency Grant to help support the workers who are expected to be dislocated in April.
“G.H. Bass is a company that has been strongly rooted in Maine and associated with our practical, hardworking and outdoor way of life. It’s loss is devastating to our state, Maine’s shoemaking heritage, and the workers who dedicated years of their life to the business,” Collins stated in a release Monday.
Given the devastating impact that job losses at the Wilton and South Portland factories will have on the workforce and the economy of these two regions, Collins stated she urged the Department of Labor to act quickly and favorably to approve this request.
“The funding will help to provide job retraining programs that are essential for these employees to gain the necessary skills to re-enter the workforce at this challenging time,” Collins stated.
National emergency grants provide states and local agencies with money to respond to the needs of dislocated workers and communities that are affected by plant closures, mass layoffs affecting 50 or more workers at a single company, and multiple layoffs in a community that have significantly increased the total number of unemployed people in that area.
Collins’ release notes that she has been in contact with Bass management and the Maine Department of Labor to offer assistance in helping dislocated workers with social services, job search support, and alternative job training.
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