SCHUMER ANNOUNCES WOOL TRUST FUND, VITAL TO KEEP HUNDREDS OF ROCHESTER UNION WORKERS JOBS SAFE AT ROCHESTER TAILORED CLOTHING FACTORY, EXTENDED FOR ADDITIONAL YEAR IN END-OF-YEAR BUDGET BILL

Wool Trust Fund Payments Are Critical For American Textile Factories To Stay Competitive, Like At The Formerly-Known Hickey Freeman Factory, By Providing Crucial Tariff Relief

After Tom James Co. Took Over Rochester Factory Senator Vowed To Save Program That Is Vital To Their Business And Now Secured One-Year Extension Of Wool Trust Fund In End-Of-Year Budget Bill

Schumer: Wool Trust Fund Will Help Protect Hundreds Of Jobs At Rochester’s Iconic 113-Year-Old Factory

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer today announced he has successfully protected the Wool Trust Fund securing a one-year extension, which Rochester’s iconic 113-year old Rochester Tailored Clothing’ factory, formerly known as Hickey Freeman, relies on for crucial tariff relief. The provisions has been included in the end of year spending bill which will be voted on later this week. The tariff relief is essential for the factory to keep its manufacturing operations and 207 workers, including 181 union employees, in Rochester by keeping its costs commensurate with overseas competitors that are not subject to these tariffs.

“The Wool Trust Fund is vital to creating a level playing field for this 113-year old Rochester institution and its signature ‘Made in the USA’ world-class clothing. I’m proud to announce I just secured a one-year extension of this fund in this year’s end-of-year legislation to support the factory’s world-class over 200 majority-union workforce making some of the best suits in the country,” said Senator Schumer. “This is a major victory for the Rochester Tailored Clothing factory, its wonderful workers, and the Rochester community. With another year of the Wool Trust Fund, this factory can continue to compete with foreign competitors, to keep their manufacturing and hundreds of jobs in Rochester.”

Schumer added, “When I visited this Rochester facility a few years ago and walked the floor alongside the factory’s hardworking employees, many of whom have worked there for decades, I committed to making sure their future was secure for years to come. I made a personal appeal to the Tom James Co. CEO to get them to help take over this institution that is woven into the very fabric of the community, and I promised to promote the legislation they needed to provide stability to their workforce. With the Wool Trust Fund now secured for another year we are ensuring this factory will continue to sew Rochester pride for years to come.”

Schumer explained that companies like Rochester Tailored Clothing are eligible recipients of the USDA’s Wool Trust Fund which compensates the domestic suit industry for the competitive disadvantage that results from an unfair “tariff inversion” where the duty on the imported finished product is lower than the duty on the inputs used to make the product here at home. The program is essential to put companies like Rochester Tailored Clothing back on a level playing field with overseas suit competitors who import suits into the U.S. without ever having to pay the same wool duties as U.S. suit producers. Without the Wool Trust Fund, the Rochester factory’s overseas competitors would have an unfair leg-up while putting our own U.S. manufacturers like the 113-year old Rochester factory in the lurch for making suits in the United States. 

Todd Browne, CEO of Tom James Company and Rochester Tailored Clothing said, “Rochester Tailored Clothing is immensely grateful for the significant and meaningful work by Senator Schumer to secure inclusion of the Wool Apparel Manufacturing Trust Fund in this year’s farm bill extension. The Wool Trust is absolutely essential to supporting American manufacturing by helping level the playing field against foreign competitors. It allows the men and women of Rochester Tailored Clothing to compete fairly on the merits of our garments with any product made anywhere in the world. If it were not for the decades of steadfast leadership by Senator Schumer, we would not be able to continue making such fine clothes in America."

Gary Bonadonna, Jr. Workers United Rochester Regional Joint Board Manager said, “We appreciate Senator Schumer going to bat for our members once again and working to keep the Rochester Tailored Clothing factory in business and our hundreds of skilled members on the job. This is not just another factory, and this is not just another job. This is an iconic business with a strong labor union representing its employees who have committed their lives to this factory and take tremendous pride in their craft.”

In 2014, Schumer was instrumental in first securing legislation in that year’s federal Farm Bill to extend the Wool Trust Fund’s authorization for five years through 2019 and to secondly restore adequate trust fund payment levels to address several years when the Trust was underfunded. In December 2018, Schumer secured the provision in the federal Farm Bill that fully funded the federal Wool Trust Fund program through 2023 which has saved the Rochester factory as much as $3 million a year in relief from unfair tariffs. The Wool Trust Fund was set to expire in 2019, and while the House of Representatives’ version of the Farm Bill included a provision to extend the trust fund until 2023 it also called for the Fund to be cut by 50% which would have jeopardized the viability of Rochester’s factory. Fortunately, Schumer secured a provision in the Senate’s version of the Farm Bill, and the final bill that was signed into law in December 2018 not only extended the Trust Fund program until 2023 but also fully funded it at 100%. When the 2018 Farm Bill was set to expire at the end of last year, Schumer was instrumental in securing an additional year of funding for the Wool Trust Fund and other “orphan” programs that did not have dedicated funding in the baseline of the Farm Bill. As a result of these efforts, Rochester’s factory is one of the few remaining US-based suit and apparel manufacturers.

Schumer has long fought to keep Hickey Freeman in business in Rochester. In 2023, Schumer made a personal appeal to U.S. apparel company Tom James and its CEO Todd Browne after the Rochester factory was put up for sale following the prior owner’s difficulties. Tom James agreed to Schumer’s call to move forward with plans to take over the factory and provide stability and growth for this long-time Rochester facility and its over 200 member workforce.

In 2009, when Hickey Freeman’s parent company at the time, Hartmarx, declared bankruptcy, threatening a liquidation and closure of the Rochester factory, Schumer led the charge to save this factory. Schumer successfully urged Hartmarx’s creditor, Wells Fargo, to keep providing Hartmarx with the credit they needed to continue manufacturing jobs in Rochester, saving hundreds of jobs. Ultimately, in 2012 Schumer helped save Hickey Freeman from bankruptcy, by working with new owners that kept the Rochester factory in business.

Tom James Co., founded in 1966 and 100% employee-owned is the largest custom clothing manufacturer in the world. Headquartered in the U.S., the company employs 3,000 workers across 13 factories including 10 U.S. factories in which workers are members of the Workers United union – the same union that represents the Rochester factory workforce. The Rochester factory is Tom James Co.’s 10th domestic manufacturing facility and the business has been in continuous operation in Rochester since its founding in 1899.

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