DO YOU THINK IMPORTED TIRES HAVE HURT DOMESTIC MANUFACTURERS? click
here to VOTE.
TO MAKE A PROFIT... Do you: Cut over-head? ... Cut labor costs?
... Cut product costs? ... Major tire dealers are turning to buying
super-cheap imported tires to better quality domestic produced tires to turn a
bigger profit. State-side Union tire manufacturers are having
difficulties keeping up because Tire Shops and Chain DO-IT-ALL tire stores
have changed the focus of consumers toward less expensive import tires... and
claiming that they are as good as the Goodyears/BFGoodrich/Dunlop..... for the
need/greed of more profit..... After all $ makes the world go around?!?
The "Keep it Made in America" bus tour media blitz
stopped in Longview on Thursday to allow union leaders, elected officials and
manufacturing representatives to push their message that the United States is
losing critical jobs to foreign countries.
"In Texas at least 250,000 jobs depend on the auto
sector," said Scott Paul, spokesman for the Alliance of American
Manufacturing. "The way to create jobs in America is not to downsize, but
to invest in America.
Mickey Breaux, District 13
director for the United Steelworkers of America,
speaks Thursday during a stop on the 'Keep it
Made in America' tour at Lively Cadillac GMC in
Longview.
"In order to do that, we need to change unfair trade
policies and level the playing field for our manufacturers," Paul said
during a news conference at Longview's Lively Cadillac GMC dealership.
"There are more than 500,000 cars sold in America each year that are made
in Korea, but we can't sell our cars there due to unfair trade policies."
Those policies do not completely shut out U.S. competition in
countries like Korea, but they severely limit the number of products American
companies can sell in many countries, he said.
Gregg County Judge Bill Stoudt said he supports the campaign.
He said the region has been impacted by lost jobs.
"In Gregg County and East Texas, we are facing some of
the same hardships everyone else in other parts of the country are
facing," Stoudt said. "But we will overcome this and get the economy
moving again."
Mayor Jay Dean urged those attending to keep American jobs in
America.
"Longview has a lot of jobs directly related to
manufacturing," Dean said. "It's important the message you have
reaches our leaders in Washington."
Harold Sweat, president of United Steelworkers Local No. 746
based in Tyler, said hundreds of workers at a tire plant closed in Tyler lost
jobs to other areas.
"Tires going on many of our vehicles are now being made
in China," Sweat said. He emphasized the personal impact the loss of jobs
causes.
"When a plant like ours in Tyler closes, it leaves a
social impact all over East Texas," Sweat said. "The economic
pressures are great. It's a mainstream issue, but it affects you and I in
things like divorces."
The event in Longview was part of an 11-state, 34-city series
of four bus tours which began Monday and ended Thursday. The "Keep it
Made in America" tour was sponsored by the Alliance for American
Manufacturing, mayors and other leaders along with the United Steelworkers
Union.
The central facet of the tour is to raise awareness as to the
importance of spending American money on American goods.
Darin Gilley, president of United Auto Workers Union Local
1760 in Missouri who traveled on the bus, said it has become obvious that the
"free trade" world has hurt the U.S. economy.
PITTSBURGH - The United Steelworkers (USW)
today celebrated an important milestone in its economic renewal
campaign: the passage of a “Buy
American” resolution in more than 100 states and municipalities
across the nation.
The Pittsburgh City
Council today passed the measure, bringing the total of approved
resolutions to 103. The resolution has been passed or is pending passed
in several states, including West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and
Texas. You can track the resolutions on our interactive map on
www.usw.org.
USW members have gotten
the resolution introduced in nearly 600 states, cities, townships,
boroughs and other local governments since its
Make Our Future Work campaign kicked off in January.
“The ‘Buy American’
resolution ensures our tax dollars are used to create jobs at home.
It’s smart policy,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard.
“In order to pull our country and the world out of this economic mess,
we have to refocus the American economy on manufacturing. This will
rebuild the middle class and our nation.”
The resolution, which can
be found at www.usw.org/buyamerican,
calls on our local and state governments to:
Maximize the creation of American jobs
and restore economic growth and opportunity by spending economic
recovery plan funds on products and services that both create jobs
and help keep Americans employed.
Commit to purchasing only products and
services that are made or performed in the United States of America
whenever and wherever possible with any economic recovery monies
provided by the American people.
Commit to publish any requests to waive
these procurement priorities so as to give American workers and
producers the opportunity to identify and provide the American
products and services that will maximize the success of our
nation’s economic recovery program.
“I live in Pittsburgh. I
work here. My children go to the public schools here. I want my children
to grow up here, and in order for them to stay here, we have to have
good, American jobs here. I’m so grateful for the Pittsburgh City
Council and the local leaders around our country who have passed the
resolution. It’s a huge step towards making that dream a reality,”
said Maria Somma, one of the many Steelworkers who spoke at today’s
Pittsburgh City Council meeting, where the “Buy American”
proclamation passed unanimously.
The United States is, by
far, the world’s largest importer, bringing in $819 billion in goods
in 2007, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed by
President Obama requires that American-made steel is used in
infrastructure projects.
“We can afford to invest
in our economy without breaking any international trade obligations,”
Gerard said. “Significant investment in infrastructure will create
tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs if U.S.-made goods are used. We
thank the economic patriots who have stepped up to the plate and passed
our resolution. They are doing their part to help create jobs and repair
our broken economy.”
A recent University of
Massachusetts study finds that infrastructure investment could create as
many as 18,000 jobs for every $1 billion invested. And recent polls by
Pew and Harris Interactive show that more than 80 percent of Americans
support “Buy American” provisions.
The USW represents
850,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada employed in the industries of
metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining and the service sector.
March
17, 2009
Sisters
and Brothers,
The number of local/state governments that have adopted the United
Steelworkers Buy American Resolution has officially broken the
century-mark, with 103 Resolutions passed as of today! And there
are hundreds more in the works! Follow the link below to find out
if one has been passed in your city/county/State. http://usw.org/media_center/news_articles?id=0238
There are
a number of states with legislatures that will soon go into recess,
and we need to move quickly to get them on board with our Buy American
Resolution.
If you
live in one of the states listed below, we call upon you to urge your
State Representatives and Senators to co-sponsor and/or sign the
Resolution.
Alaska
(Adjourns April 19)
Arizona
(Adjourns Late April)
Georgia (Adjourns Late March)
Idaho
(Adjourns Early April)
Iowa (Adjourns May 1)
Kansas (Adjourns Late April)
Maryland (Adjourns April 13)
Mississippi (Adjourns April 5th)
Montana (Adjourns Late April)
New Mexico (Adjourns March 21)
North Dakota (Adjourns April 30)
South Dakota (Adjourns March 30)
Washington (Adjourns April 26)
If
your State Rep or Senator is not aware or has not seen our Buy
American resolution, you can download it at the links below.
The more resolutions we pass, the greater the chances of
getting Americans back to work.
Visit www.makeourfuturework.org Anytime to See Updated Buy
American Activity From Across the Country
USW Rapid Response
? (412)
562-2291 ? http://www.uswrr.org
AAM
Action Update
February 11, 2009
Act
Now. Tell Congress to Preserve Buy
America, the Key to Our Economic Recovery
WATCH
THIS VIDEO:
Thanks
to your hard work, we won the first round on Buy America. The economic
recovery legislation passed by the Senate contains Buy American rules, just as
the House bill did. But now we have more to do.
You
need to make sure that Congress follows through and preserves sensible Buy
America requirements for the economic recovery legislation. How can
you do this? Contact
your Senators today and say, thank you....or shame on you.
Click here for
Senators to thank
forsupporting
Buy
America. Tell them they made the right
decision for our jobs and our future, and ask them to support Buy America
rules in the final bill.
And click here for
the Senators who
voted against Buy
America
. Tell them why they should support Buy
America rules in the final bill.
The
facts on Buy
America
:
-Consistent with our international trade
obligations;
-Supported by 84%
of the American public;
-Creates 33% more manufacturing jobs, according to a recent study;
-The law
of the
land for 70 years.
To learn more facts about Buy America, click here.
And see what Americans are saying about Buy America in our new YouTube video.
Help us reach a wider audience by viewing the video, then register on the
site, give it the highest rating possible, subscribe to future videos and
share/forward it to your friends, family, and others.
Hundreds
of thousands of jobs are at stake. Tell Congress to keep it made in
America
by preserving strong Buy America rules in the final bill. And let us
know what you are doing in your community. We'd love to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Scott Paul
Executive Director
Residents of Idaho
are represented in Congress by 2 Senators and 2 Representatives.
CLICK ON THESE LINKS TO
E-MAIL YOUR IDAHO STATE CONGRESSMEN DIRECTLY AND ASK THEM TO SUPPORT
"In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in an
effort to alleviate the effects of the ... Anyone? Anyone? ... the Great
Depression, passed the ... Anyone? Anyone? The tariff bill? The
Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act? ..."
Every few years, like a comet on an irregular orbit, the Smoot-Hawley Act
of 1930 comes back to haunt Americans. In the 1986 movie "Ferris
Bueller's Day Off," an economics teacher played by Ben Stein found
his students oblivious about it. In 1993, Vice President Al Gore stunned
Texas businessman Ross Perot with a Smoot-Hawley reference as they debated
the North American Free Trade Agreement on "Larry King Live."
Now Smoot-Hawley (or Hawley-Smoot as it was called in the House) is at the
center of a debate over a "buy American" provision inserted into
the $790 billion stimulus bill that President Barack Obama is expected to
sign Monday.
The House version of the bill would have required that all materials
purchased for construction with stimulus money be made in America. That
would have been a boon for American manufacturers, particularly steel and
concrete companies.
The final version adopted the Senate's language, which softened — some
say "gutted" — the "buy America" provision by
requiring only that stimulus funds be spent in a way that don't violate
U.S. trade agreements.
Even this milder language alarms many economists, who say it will cause
other nations to retaliate against American-made products. They raise the
ghosts of Sen. Reed Smoot, R-Utah, and Rep. Willis Hawley, R-Oregon, whose
1930 bill raising U.S. tariffs was designed to raise money for the
government and protect American jobs.
"Did it work?" asked Mr. Stein in "Ferris Bueller."
"Anyone? Anyone know the effects? It did not work, and the United
States sank deeper into the Great Depression."
The Economist, the British news magazine and semi-official house organ of
the free-trade movement, argues that even the watered-down "buy
American" provisions in the stimulus bill will create a similar
effect. Calling the provisions "alarmingly nationalistic," The
Economist argues that the provisions "would not even boost American
employment in the short run, because — just as with Smoot-Hawley — the
inevitable retaliation would destroy more jobs at exporting firms."
"Buy America" poses a thorny moment for Mr. Obama. During the
presidential campaign, he sometimes posed as an economic nationalist,
running "Buy American. Vote Obama" ads in states with heavy
union membership.
But Wednesday, in an interview with the Post-Dispatch's Bill Lambrecht and
reporters from other regional newspapers, Mr. Obama said, "Just as
there are a lot of folks in Illinois or St. Louis or Missouri that are
concerned about imports coming in, there's probably an equal number of
folks whose livelihoods depend on exports going out."
As it happens, in the space of three days in two Illinois cities just 160
miles apart, the "buy American" debate was starkly illustrated.
On Tuesday, the day before the president made his remarks, 3,000 people
took part in a "Put America Back to Work" march in Granite City
organized by the steelworkers union, whose membership has
suffered huge layoffs they blame in part on imported steel.
But Thursday, the day after he made those remarks, Mr. Obama visited the
Caterpillar Inc., plant in Peoria. Caterpillar has laid off thousands of
workers because of declining worldwide demand for its heavy equipment.
Caterpillar's workers worry that a trade war touched off by the "buy
America" provision would hurt their chances of going back to work.
Some people are going to win, some are going to lose, but free trade is
not a zero-sum game. On balance, free trade creates more jobs than it
costs, both here and abroad, and makes for a more peaceful world. Mr.
Obama, for all his posturing during the election, knows that full well.
He must sign the bill with the watered down "buy American"
provision but work diligently to make other nations uphold their end of
the deal. Trade that's free but not fair is no bargain.
US
Taxpayer Dollars Should Create American Jobs!
Rapid
Response Gears Up For Battle in Cities and Towns Across U.S.
We already know the economy is bad.
Thousands of jobs are being lost daily, including many of our Steelworker
brothers and sisters. That’s why our union is mobilizing to get the
economy working again and rebuild the middle class in the process.
Our plan for economic renewal:
Pushes for investment in manufacturing,
infrastructure, and green jobs,
Calls for American tax dollars to be
spent on American products, and
Rebuilds the Middle Class by giving
employees the choice to unionize and bargain collectively.
So far:
An economic renewal plan containing many
of the things we wanted, including some Buy America rules that will help
keep Americans working, made it through the House and is poised to pass in
the Senate. The President has pledged to sign the legislation.
States and cities will be given grants
from this money for “shovel-ready” projects.
We want to push state and local governments and leaders to use these
taxpayer dollars to maximize the creation of American jobs because it will
be these levels of government that will be doing the implementation.
To do this, we are asking state and local
lawmakers to pass a “Buy American” resolution that demands – to
every extent possible – that goods and services paid for with economic
recovery plan dollars be exclusively made or performed in the United
States. The bottom line for us is that we want to keep American tax
dollars here to create jobs at home at this critical time.
Rapid Response successfully pushed our
Members of Congress last week to keep strong Buy America language in the
economic renewal plan. Those efforts will continue. Watch for the next
part of our action on this issue next week! In the meantime, check out
more information on the USW Make Our Future Work mobilization at www.makeourfuturework.org.
United Steelworkers make case
for Canadian exemption from �Buy American�
Wednesday, 04 February
2009
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate has
defanged the "Buy American" provision contained in a huge
economic recovery bill, watering down the controversial measure that
threatened to ignite a cross-border trade war just two weeks before
President Barack Obama's visit to Canada.
The multi-billion-dollar economic stimulus package now includes a
requirement that international trade agreements must not be violated
as a result of the "Buy American" provision.
Senator John McCain's attempt to kill the provision outright was voted
down, but Republicans succeeded in getting some significant tax breaks
inserted into the bill late Wednesday.
The softening of "Buy American" came just 24 hours after
Obama warned senators about the dangers of protectionism in the face
of a global economic meltdown, and only hours after the United
Steelworkers pleaded Canada's case to lawmakers.
A written submission to the congressional steel committee from the
Steelworkers' Canadian president, Leo Gerard, asked that legislators
exempt Canada from the provision.
"Because we are an international union, and because Canadian and
U.S. manufacturing is so integrated, we encourage you and other
members of the steel caucus to approach your counterparts in Canada to
discuss a co-ordinated approach," Gerard's submission read.
Such an approach would allow "the North American industry to
strengthen its ability to create and preserve these good jobs in both
countries," he said.
The House has already passed its own version of the bill, which
contains a requirement that all steel and iron used in the package's
infrastructure projects are American-made.
But the Senate bill, currently being debated, went even further,
stating that any and all goods used for those projects be made in the
U.S.
That the Senate, with legislators who were more hardline on the
"Buy American" stance than House leaders, agreed to water
down the bill is good news for Canada since it likely won't be
toughened up again.
The Senate backed down as it also voted to give a tax break of up to
US$15,000 to homebuyers in hopes of revitalizing the housing industry,
a victory for Republicans eager to leave their mark on the bill.
The U.S. lawmakers remained defiant in the face of Obama's remarks on
Tuesday that the "Buy American" provision could trigger
potentially devastating trade wars if it remains in the stimulus
package.
"I have no belief that it will be taken out or weakened,"
caucus chairman Pete Visclosky, an Indiana Democrat, said after the
steel committee hearing.
Others were more forceful.
"If it's not in, I'm not supporting this package and I'll bring a
lot of votes with me," said James Obestar, a Democrat from
Minnesota who's chairman of the House Transportation Committee.
The Steelworkers have said it's Chinese steel, not Canadian, that's
the intended target of "Buy American." American steel-makers
have long accused China of employing unjust policies that give its
steel manufacturers a competitive advantage.
Obama took to the airwaves Tuesday to warn senators that leaving
protectionist measures in the package would be folly during a global
economic meltdown.
"I think that would be a mistake right now," he said in an
interview with ABC News.
"That is a potential source of trade wars that we can't afford at
a time when trade is sinking all across the globe. I think we need to
make sure that any provisions that are in there are not going to
trigger a trade war."
Obama had an ally in his former rival for the White House.
McCain moved to kill the provision entirely, telling Fox News on
Wednesday that it "is ignoring the lessons of history ... we
can't have this kind of protectionism. It hasn't worked in the past.
It won't work now."
The issue has landed Obama squarely on the horns of a dilemma. While
he campaigned on the importance of protecting American jobs, a litany
of prominent U.S. corporations, economists and business associations
have warned that "Buy American" could wipe out domestic
jobs, spark international trade disputes and stifle a global economic
recovery.
Obama's inaugural address stressed his intention to work with the rest
of the world to stop the global economic meltdown, yet many of those
who voted for him and his Democratic colleagues are staunchly
protectionist.
The steel company executives who showed up for Wednesday's caucus
hearing were skeptical of the "Buy American" warnings.
Dan DiMicco, chief executive of Nucor Corp., dismissed as
"garbage" a recent study by the Peterson Institute for
International Economics that "Buy American" could cost, not
save, thousands of U.S. jobs.
"The American people are with us and with you on this
issue," he told the steel caucus members.
Such sentiments are making Canadians nervous, even as Prime Minister
Stephen Harper expressed optimism earlier Wednesday about Obama's
stance.
"We are encouraged, all Canadians are encouraged, by Mr. Obama's
comments," Harper told MPs.
Michael Wilson, the Canadian ambassador to the United States, sent a
terse letter to Senate leaders earlier this week urging them to drop
the provision, and Embassy officials have been continuing to lobby
congressional leaders to plead Canada's case. The European Union also
sent a letter to Congress.
Senate Democrats do not have the votes to pass the stimulus package on
their own. Democratic leaders conceded on Wednesday they may soon be
obliged to cut billions of dollars from the bill to please
Republicans.
"It goes without saying if it's going to pass in the Senate, it
has to be bipartisan," said Senator Dick Durbin, the
second-ranking Democratic leader, adding that rank-and-file
legislators in both parties want to reduce the cost of the bill.
