Al Norman thinks Wal-Mart is making progress in pushing Hanes to move manufacturing jobs out of America to places with cheaper labor like Vietnam and Thailand. Of course he notes that they still have some work to do since Hanes still operates 11 plants in the US with 10,000 jobs.

Check out his article over at The Huffington Post. Here's a small piece of it:

Wal-Mart has helped drive another American manufacturing icon offshore.

This week Hanes (HBI, Hanesbrands Inc) announced that it was abandoning four production plants in North Carolina, and five more in Central America. Chasing cheap labor, the Hanes jobs will shift to Thailand and Vietnam. According to MarketWatch, Hanes is attempting to lower costs to remain competitive, "and answering to the demands of retailers such as No. 1 discounter Wal-Mart Stores Inc."

The American consumer knows Hanes as the company that makes T-shirts, bras, panties, men's and children's underwear--the same underwear that Michael Jordan wears. Hanes boasts that its brands "can be found in eight out of 10 American households." Brands such as Playtex and Wonderbra, Hanes, Champion and L'eggs. Most Americans think that Hanes products are as American as Michael Jordan. But the Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Hanesbrands long ago quietly shifted to a new vision for the company: "to be a world-class consumer goods company with a distinctive competence in operating a low-cost global supply chain." That sure ain't North Carolina.