Tennessee zipper company in crosshairs of buy-American laws

DUNLAP, Tenn. (AP) — Robert Kwasnik has a zipper problem.

Kwasnik is president of Dunlap Industries, a small manufacturing company in the city of Dunlap, Tennessee, that makes zippers and is now fighting to keep its workers.

Until about a year ago, Dunlap had contracts with the federal government to make zippers for military uniforms. It lost them after a competitor complained that not all of the parts the Appalachian company was using were from the U.S.

A federal law requires the government to give preference to products made and sourced in America. The competitor who complained? Japanese company YKK, which produces zippers in Georgia and now has some of the contracts Dunlap lost.