By Meena Thiruvengadam
San Antonio Express-News
FABENS -- Julia Rodriguez has spent nearly half her life sewing hems onto blue jeans in this one-stoplight town 30 miles southeast of El Paso.
Like generations of factory workers before her, she carved out a life using her salary as a ticket to independence.
"I didn't have to ask anybody for anything, not even my husband," she said through a translator. "Because I had my own money, I could do what I want." But on Oct. 7, the VF Jeanswear plant where Rodriguez worked closed, transferring its workload to Costa Rica, where it can be done more cheaply. And, like many factory workers before her, Rodriguez lost her job.
"The hardest thing you ever have to do is to tell people who are doing a perfectly good job that you don't have a job for them anymore," said Sam Tucker, corporate vice president of human resources.
Losing the VF Jeanswear plant will be especially tough for Fabens. The desert town of about 8,000 was once a railway hub, but now with only a few fast-food restaurants, a couple of bars and a handful of other small businesses, it's barely noticeable to the truckers driving by on Interstate 10.
VF Jeanswear moved to Fabens in the 1960s after buying a local blue jeans manufacturer. At its height, the plant employed 850 people, equal to about 10 percent of the town's population.
With almost 400 employees working at the plant, VF Jeanswear was the city's largest employer, followed by a local school district.
But among workers' stories of uncertainty, anger, fear and financial struggles, there already are tales of successful new beginnings.
Antonia Garcia started a master's degree program in education last month. The mother of four operated a forklift at the Fabens plant until she was laid off in 2003. "When I was laid off, it was like having cold water thrown in my face," she said.
It was a wake-up call that renewed her commitment to her education.
"If I don't finish my education, I'm going to end up working in another factory," she said. "I don't want that." After obtaining a master's degree, Garcia plans to become a teacher.
Pedro Gallo, who rose from sewing machine operator to production line supervisor in his nearly 23 years at the plant, plans to explore opportunities in the medical field. "I'm determined to get some education in that field somehow," he said.
Rodriguez, who doesn't speak much English but can understand almost anything said to her, isn't sure what she'll do next. She wants to learn more English, develop computer skills and get a GED.
"My life is going to change completely," she said. "With no more jeans, I will have to depend on unemployment, and even to survive on that will be hard."
