Hugo Boss: A look behind the scenes as determined workers fight to keep their plant open

Hugo Boss: A look behind the scenes as determined workers fight to keep their plant open -- Part One

Sunday, August 08, 2010, 8:04 AM

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Several anonymous messengers fanned out around Cleveland on Dec. 29, 2009, carrying letters to each of the more than 300 hourly employees who made designer suits at the Hugo Boss plant in suburban Brooklyn -- suits that Hollywood stars like Jeff Bridges, George Clooney and Tom Cruise buy for more than $1,000 apiece.

Wanda Navarro's husband accepted the letter addressed to her at their home on Cleveland's West Side. She was in Puerto Rico, arranging her father's funeral. The factory was shut down for its holiday break. Her husband telephoned her at the funeral home.

She told him to open the letter. She couldn't make out what he was saying at first. Then he offered a summary:

"You don't got no job!" he told her.

"Oh my God!" she said, bursting into tears.

She felt powerless.

"At that moment," Navarro later recalled, "I didn't know if I was crying for my father or because I didn't have no job."

In East Cleveland, Navarro's friend Sheila McVay was relaxing in front of the television that same afternoon when her doorbell rang. The messenger handed her the letter.

"What was so important that it couldn't wait until the plant reopened in about a week?" She wondered.


More: http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/08/hugo_boss_the_story_of_the_bat.html