American products. From the eco-
nomic point of view it is very obvious
that it is useful because it is one-sided.
There is no price for that. But there
are a lot of people who are against
normalization with Israel. They are
against partnership with Israeli enter-
prises, but they are a minority"
The factories in the Irbid zone pro-
vide hundreds of jobs in an area par-
ticularly hard-hit by unemployment.
Workers come from some 50 vil-
lages and refugee camps in the area.
Century alone employs 650 workers,
most of whom are women who work
in all facets of the industry, including
management and quality control.
There are no men employed as seam-
sters. "We want to give the families
who send their girls to work here a
feeling of assurance. So it is important
that men and women not work
together," explains general manager
Nadim As'ad.
The employees receive medical
insurance, are transported to and from
work, eat in the factory dining room
and go on company outings. In
Japanese fashion, they attend monthly
morale-boosting meetings at which
problems are discussed and the
employees are encouraged to offer sug-
gestions. The average wage is around
$150 a month.
The underwear produced in Irbid
travels an intricate path before it gets
to American shops: Delta buys cotton
in Egypt, spins it in Turkey and mixes
and dyes the fabric in Israel. Then it is
cut and sewn in Jordan and the prod-
ucts are shipped to the port in Haifa.
All this is cost effective because of
cheap labor costs in Jordan - consider
that Israeli factory workers earn $1,000
a month to the Jordanians' $150.
And Jordan's gain is Israel's loss. The
Israeli textile industry is in deep trou-
ble, and resentment is high over the
move of jobs to Jordan. But Delta
Galil CEO Dov Lautman, the first
Israeli to relocate his operations to
Jordan, insists the move has saved jobs.
Lautman contends that textile corn-
panies that did not follow Delta's
example have gone bankrupt, citing
Sabrina as.an example. In March,
Kitan announced it was laying off
additional workers from its subsidiary
Tango plant in Nazareth. The transfer
of production to Jordan is now being
considered.
Dov Lautman claims that he has
saved Israeli jobs by lowering the price
of the end products, making them
more competitive and thus keeping
the company in business. CI

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Detroit Jewish News

8/21

1998

137