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August 14, 2007

Labor Dept. grants $617,515 for ex-Quaker workers

FALL RIVER -- Former employees of the shuttered Quaker Fabric Corp. plant received a rare piece of good news today, when the Department of Labor announced that it had approved a National Emergency Grant of $617,515 to assist former Quaker staff.

The money will pay for career counseling and job search assistance at a special career center being established in Fall River for former Quaker employees, according to Linnea Walsh, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Massachusetts has set aside $250,000 to help establish the reemployment center, where four former Quaker workers have been hired as staff.

It is scheduled to open next month, Walsh said.

“While my preference would be to make changes in our national economic policies that would prevent these kinds of closures from happening, as long as they do occur, we need to do all we can to see that those who lose their jobs receive as much help as possible,” U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said in a statement today.

Last month, Quaker fired all 930 employees, including at least 62 Rhode Island residents, when it ceased manufacturing.
-- Journal staff writer Benjamin N. Gedan

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 5:30 PM | Permalink

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