Amen in uniform: an Asheboro apparel maker thought a new contract would be the answer to its prayers. Now it's singing the GI blues.

• Author: Kemp, Mark

Behind a mound of paperwork in his drab, gray office, Wallace Thompson shakes his head and sighs. Five days before Christmas, the president of Fox Apparel in Asheboro still can't feel the holiday spirit. His mind is too crowded with the ghosts of employees past. A year ago, Fox had more than 300; now, it has about 100. And there's really not enough work for those. "We're down to just four days a week now."

When he gets up to walk around the plant, his golden retriever, Elly May, uncurls from her perch on an old brown couch and follows. The buzz of sewing machines turning out trousers makes the soft-spoken Thompson hard to hear, but the din could be even louder. Fox's vice president of operations, Glenn Oakes, points to rows of silent sewing machines.

Thompson bemoans the state of apparel manufacturing in the United States since the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect in 1994. At 64, he has lost most of the hair on his head, and his face has been creased by time and the worries of nearly 40 years in the industry. But he says he can still look at himself in the mirror and honestly say he's done his best for his employees. "I had a few of them hug my neck and say, 'Thank you. I know you're trying.'"

They don't have to tell him his good intentions don't pay the bills. Though he bought little bags of gifts for them, Thompson knows their holidays won't be very happy. "I'm not giving them enough to put their kids through school and stuff. They're just living paycheck to paycheck."

It's nothing new for apparel makers to complain about having to lay off workers or cut back hours. Between December 1993 and December 2006, the state lost 77% of its apparel-manufacturing jobs, mostly to technology improvements and low-cost imports. But Thompson's despair centers on a thornier issue: foreign-made U.S. Army uniforms. Despite winning a government contract to make combat trousers, Fox has had to let go workers. That, he says, is because the Army can't keep soldiers from buying cheap knockoffs. Some foreign-made uniforms, he claims, are even sold in stores on military bases.

To Thompson, who served in the Army in the mid-1960s, that seems like a betrayal of American workers and soldiers. "When I wore my uniform, I was proud of it. Back then, when you put on your uniform, it represented something. Now, you might be wearing a uniform made in China. How can you be a proud American soldier in a Chinese-made uniform? That just doesn't even make...