Hugo Boss workers sign 3-year contract at plant that nearly closed
The Plain Dealer – Workers at Hugo Boss have signed a three-year contract with the company, signaling the union’s well-publicized efforts to keep the plant from closing in 2010 were more than fleeting.
Confirmation of the contract came Friday from Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who attended a celebration at the men’s suit manufacturing facility this morning. The Workers United union is scheduled to hold a press conference Friday afternoon to discuss the agreement.
“Twenty months ago this place was going to close,” he said. “It is a terrific victory for Cleveland that the workers were able to sign a three-year contract.”
The German-based company announced in 2009 that it intended to close the plant and move the work abroad, where it could have be done less expensively. That meant 300 workers here would have been without jobs during a time when unemployment rates in Ohio were soaring.
