Is it really difficult to find American-made apparel? How about Union-made, American made-apparel? One visit to Union Jean & Apparel Company's website at www.unionjeanco.com, and you'll see that the answer is definitely "no."

Of course it isn't easy for American companies to employ 100% of their workforce in the United States, especially for the garment industry, but that is exactly what Union Jean & Apparel has done. And it especially isn't easy when companies pay union wages, which are usually higher than non-union wages. Paying higher wages, union and non-union both, should be considered an asset rather than a liability for the country as a whole since Americans can only be affluent as consumers to the degree that they are also wage-earners.

Co-founder Lawson Nickol says that "Surviving in the union garment business is a real challenge today and sometimes we feel like David taking on Goliath." Union Jean & Apparel is taking on Goliath with not just a unionized manufacturing workforce. The entire company is unionized from manufacturing to distribution, sales, administration and management.

From denim jeans to denim shirts and jackets, canvas/duck coveralls, fleece vests and sweatshirts, sports sweatshirts and sweatpants, windbreakers and classy twill long sleeve shirts, Union Jean & Apparel has them all and more. And they're very reasonably priced. Did you ever imagine you could buy a high quality pair of jeans for $24.00 - union made in the USA? If Americans can't afford prices like this to buy made in USA, we are in real trouble folks. I doubt you could make a valid argument that we must have the availability of supposedly cheaper Chinese-made apparel to save the consumer money in this case. How much money could we actually save? I firmly believe that if we as a people stopped buying so many of the Chinese imports that we really don't need anyway, we would have enough money left over to buy more made in USA goods when they do cost more.

Sometimes it's nice to look at some quotes from the past to get a fresh perspective for the present and the future. When President Warren Harding was challenged by the argument that consumers benefit from cheaper imports, he replied "One who values American prosperity and . . . American standards of wage[s] and living can have no sympathy with the proposal that easy entry and a flood of imports will cheapen our cost of living. It is more likely to destroy our capacity to buy."

Please take time to visit www.unionjeanco.com and take a look at their large and diverse selection of American-made products. Help the David's in America survive and win against the Goliath's of the global economy. Order American-made apparel from Union Jean & Apparel Company today. Buying American made this Christmas would truly be a gift to all of us.

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