Senator Coates Comments on Wrangler Announcement to Cut Nearly 700 Jobs

Oklahoma State Senate Communications Division
State Capitol
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 30 For Immediate Release: July 2, 2003 Clip
Senator Harry Coates
Senator Coates Comments on Wrangler Announcement
to Cut Nearly 00 Jobs After Wrangler Jeans announced it would be cutting nearly 00 jobs at its Seminole facility by late September, State Senator Harry Coates said the first priority must be to help take care of displaced workers and their families.
Obviously, were disappointed. But now weve got to think about what happens next. Weve got to take care of these workers, help identify unemployment services and education that can retrain them for new work. And weve got to attract new industry to Seminole County, said Senator Coates, RSeminole.
Senator Coates and Representative Dan Boren, DSeminole, have been in contact with officials from Wrangler and its parent company, VF Jeanswear, in an attempt to keep the Seminole facility open. Those actions were in response to fears of another closing after Wrangler ended operations last year in Coalgate and Okemah.
The company has also closed its plant in Prague, as well as plants in Texas, Virginia and Missouri.
City officials were told today that Wrangler would lay off 3 employees in Seminole. Many of those jobs will likely be moved to facilities in Mexico, where workers will receive .0 a day compared to 0.2 an hour in Oklahoma.
A town hall meeting will be held tomorrow evening at p.m. at Seminole State College to discuss strategies to assist the families impacted by the layoffs.
Seminole has seen hard times before. This town has survived the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression and the devastating oil bust in the 90s. But this is still a place people want to call home. So well do what weve always done well pull together and well survive, said Senator Coates.