Labor & Employment Law

Restoring Manufacturing Key to Saving American Dream

By James Parks

A much larger and more robust manufacturing sector is the key to rebuilding the American economy and restoring faith in the American Dream, political, business and labor leaders said yesterday.  

At the Conference on the Renaissance of American Manufacturing in Washington, D.C., several speakers agreed the free fall in U.S. manufacturing has cost millions of good jobs and put the country at a competitive disadvantage in the global economy. The future could be even dimmer if polices aren’t adopted to staunch the decline–because as the nation loses manufacturing, we also lose the research and development that lead to future innovations and new industries, they said.

Former U.S. Sen. Don Riegle (D-Mich.) noted that U.S. competitors?China, Germany and other European countries?utilize strategies that emphasize domestic development and production. The United States has no strategy, just a mistaken blind faith in free trade. In effect, the United States gives away jobs, production and technology to China and other countries, then buys back the products in the form of imports, he said.

Or as Stan Sorscher writes at Huffington Post, our nation’s singular reliance on an outmoded theory of free trade is like being hustled:

This reminds me of a lesson from the movie , “The Sting.”  The perfect con is when the “mark” thinks he got a good deal. We are being out-played in global commerce, but we think we have the good deal with our free trade orthodoxy.

Sorscher is labor representative for the Society for Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace /IFPTE Local 2001 (SPEEA). Read his full post here.

Machinists (IAM) President Tom Buffenbarger told the conference Germany is successful because its corporate culture is strikingly different from the United States. The German government along with businesses and workers are partners in creating an economic strategy. In this country, employers treat workers as the enemy, he said.

Corporate culture has run amok, trampling the rights of workers. It?s a sad to say that the most courageous thing a worker in this country can do is say, ?I want a union.?   

U.S. trade policies must be revamped to level the global playing field, Thea Lee, deputy chief of staff to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, told the conference.

Restoring our manufacturing base is about more than economic growth, House Majority Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said:

This is about the character of our country, about the kind of country we?ll be in mid century. Innovation follows manufacturing. The future of our country?s economy as the world?s leader depends on our restoring our manufacturing base.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on September 29, 2010 (boomark / email).