Durbin sides with Hartmarx, urges Wells Fargo not to liquidate

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin talked about the O'Hare expansion, flooding issues and Obama's troubled suitmaker on Wednesday in Des Plaines.

The Illinois senator met with new mayors from Des Plaines, Franklin Park, Elmhurst, Niles, Palatine and Prospect Heights at the Des Plaines city hall for about 25 minutes behind closed doors. The group then talked about their meeting briefly in open session before Durbin was bombarded with questions about Roland Burris.

"President Obama's suits," said Des Plaines Mayor Martin Moylan about what Durbin and the new mayors discussed. "We need federal money to keep that factory open, we're talking about 600 local jobs."

Durbin agreed.

He joined dozens of other lawmakers who are pressuring the creditors of the Chicago-based Hart Schaffner & Marx to allow the sale of the struggling menswear maker. Hartmarx has a manufacturing plant on Touhy Avenue in Des Plaines.

The 120-year-old Hartmarx filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January after banks cut off its credit. Its biggest creditor, Wells Fargo, has pushed to liquidate Hartmarx because it hasn't been able to repay $114 million. Durbin and other lawmakers want Wells Fargo to accept one of three bids for Hartmarx because the bank received $25 billion in federal bailout money.

"We loaned money to Wells Fargo and they need to help out local businesses," said Durbin on Wednesday. "It's a two-way street."

Thursday morning, buses filled with workers from Hart Schaffner & Marx's Des Plaines factory are headed to Waukesha, Wis., where the workers will protest outside the Target Corp.'s annual meeting to convince Target board member Richard M. Kovacevich, also chairman of Wells Fargo & Co., to not liquidate the suitmaker.

Protesters will ask Kovacevich to accept Emerisque/SKNL North America's bid to help Hartmarx out of bankruptcy, said Ray Quintanilla, spokesman for Illinois State Council, Service Employees International Union, an umbrella organization for Workers United union representing Hartmarx workers.

Quintanilla said the Emerisque/ SKNL North America's bid would save about 1,000 manufacturing jobs in Illinois, more than half in Des Plaines.

"The idea is to keep (the issue) on the front burner so that Wells Fargo knows that this is very important for the employees, particularly those in Des Plaines," Quintanilla said.

Hartmarx makes suits for President Barack Obama and employs more than 3,000 workers in Illinois, Indiana, New York and Alabama.

• Daily Herald Staff Reporter Madhu Krishnamurthy and The Associated Press contributed to this article.