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MILWAUKEE (AP) -- United States Leather Inc. announced Wednesday it is closing its Milwaukee operations, which employ about 600 workers and include the 152-year-old Pfister & Vogel tannery.

The company issued a statement blaming the decision on ``adverse business conditions in the global footwear market.''

The Pfister & Vogel and A.L. Gebhardt plants have made finished leather mostly for shoes.

Hourly workers were given notices that most of their jobs would end at the close of business Friday. Also closing are the company's corporate and administrative offices.

The company said it would continue to operate or sell plants in North Carolina, Nebraska, Texas, Indiana and Ontario that make leather for furniture, cars and equestrian gear. They employ a total of about 600 workers.

Frank Busalacchi, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 270, which represents 270 Pfister & Vogel workers, said the union received no notice from the company on the closing.

``We're going to have a plan of attack,'' he said.

``We think there are some legal issues here that have to be met,'' such as laws requiring a 60-day notice of a plant closing, he said.

U.S. Leather was taken over by creditors in 1996 but emerged from bankruptcy in 1998.

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-- Dee (T1colt556@aol.com), February 03, 2000

Answers

In other words those jobs are going to ________. Fill in the blank, probably Mexico.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), February 03, 2000.