For workers, footwear factory's closing was 'inevitable'

LISBON   Making shoes is all they know. 

Jackie Hamel, 51, started doing it 35 years ago. Sheís never done anything else. 

Her older sister, Lucie St. Pierre, has been at it just as long. She got her first job in a shoe factory when she was 18. Sheís now 53. 

Over the years, Hamel and St. Pierre, who both live in Lewiston and work for Eastland Shoe Manufacturing Corp., have hopped from company to company. When one factory shut down, they went to another, then another, then another. 

That pattern, however, is about to end. 

Eastland Shoe announced Monday [in September] that it is closing its plant in Lisbon Falls within the next four to eight weeks. The plant employs about 70 workers. 

When St. Pierre and Hamel heard the news, they decided their time is up. When the doors close, they are saying goodbye to the shoemaking business for good ? no more stitching, no more cutting. The sisters have decided to go back to school to get their high school diplomas. 

They have no choice, they said, but to learn new skills. 

ìWe had our first computer class on Monday,î said Hamel while sitting outside the Lisbon Falls plant with several of her co-workers during their 30-minute lunch break Thursday. 

ìYeah, that was a joke,î added St. Pierre, throwing her head back and rolling her eyes. 

ìI didnít even know how to turn the stupid thing on,î Hamel said. 

Eastland Shoe gave the workers in Lisbon Falls the option of putting their names on a list to be considered for a job in the companyís main plant in Freeport, but Hamel, St. Pierre and many others declined. 

ìWhy bother?î asked Lorrie Morin, a 36-year-old mother who has worked in shoe factories for 18 years. ìWeíll probably be in the same position six months from now.î 

Although Eastland Shoe hasnít indicated that it has any plans of shutting down completely or moving its operation overseas, several of the workers in Lisbon Falls predict the company eventually will do one or the other. 

ìItís inevitable,î said Janet Bilodeau, a 39-year-old factory worker from Sabattus. ìIt has happened to all of them.î 

Eastland Shoe is a 45-year-old company that manufactures menís and womenís casual loafers and boots. A plant in Fryeburg, which opened in 1964 to make golf, sport and casual shoes, closed in December 1998, putting 95 people out of work. The Lisbon Falls factory opened in 1994. 

Company officials cited the same reason for closing both plants: foreign competition. 

The Freeport-based company is not alone. The shoe-making business in Maine has been declining steadily for many years. Plants have been closing one after the other, leaving hundreds of people in central Maine to face unpredictable futures. 

ìThis is all we know how to do,î said Bilodeau, who got her first shoe-making job right out of high school. She worked in four different plants before getting a job at Eastland Shoe. Each one closed down, forcing her out of work. 

Bilodeau doesnít know what she is going to do next. Like many of her co-workers, sheís hoping that sheíll be eligible for Federal Trade Adjustment Assistance, a job-training program offered by the Maine Department of Labor to help retrain workers whose companies have suffered at least in part from foreign competition. 

Retraining efforts are focused on jobs in demand such as technology, health care, accounting, law enforcement and retail sales. 

ëItís realityí 

The news of the closing didnít come as a surprise, the workers said. They had been hearing rumors for more than three months. 

ìWe really canít blame Eastland Shoe,î Morin said. ìThey are trying to survive just like we are.î 

Instead, the workers said, they blame the government for allowing American companies to take their business overseas where they can find cheaper labor and materials. 

ìThe government lets all of these imports into Maine and the U.S. and weíre losing our jobs,î Morin said. ìI just donít understand it.î 

The workers said they are trying to be optimistic about the future. The prospect of starting a new career and learning new skills is exciting to some. But, they admitted, they are getting more nervous by the day. 

They are afraid of trying something new. They are afraid of failing. 

ìItís reality now,î Hamel said. 

ìItís setting in,î Morin added. ìWe have to start worrying about paying bills and getting our lives in order.î 

lchmelecki@sunjournal.com