Fort Payne, Alabama: About 130 of Fort Payne’s remaining hosiery workers are losing their jobs. Gildan-Prewitt is closing its knitting equipment facility and moving rocessing operations to Honduras.
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The House passes a bill to help U.S. manufacturing.
Rep. Steny Hoyer thinks we should restore American pride in manufacturing.
IMF says that China’s trade surplus is set to rapidly increase.
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Congressman Daniel Lipinski’s bipartisan National Manufacturing Strategy Act H.R. 4692 overwhelmingly passed the house today with a vote of 379 to 38.
Rep. Lipinski (IL-03) said in a statement:
“Today’s vote shows that Washington is finally starting to listen to what I have always promoted and America’s middle class has long known: we must take action to support domestic manufacturing and end the outsourcing of American jobs. A strong manufacturing sector is critical to leading America out of recession. Over the last decade, we have lost one-third of all domestic manufacturing jobs. Contrary to what some seem to believe, these job losses were not inevitable, and I do not accept the notion that there is nothing we can do.”
The bill “requires the President to establish a Manufacturing Strategy Board within the Commerce Department that includes federal officials, two state Governors from different parties, and nine private-sector leaders and stakeholders from the manufacturing industry.” Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) will introduce H.R. 4692 to the Senate.
The passage of the bill was a wise move considering the Alliance for American Manufacturing recently released a poll that has spread like wildfire across the Hill, and the country. The poll indicates that Americans are unsettled by the loss of manufacturing and manufacturing jobs, and while a majority do not see the United States as the number one economy, voters want to get back on top.
Several organizations, including AAM, have endorsed the bill. AAM Executive Director Scott Paul said in a statement:
“We commend Congressman Lipinski for his authorship of H.R. 4692. There is no question that America needs a manufacturing strategy to revitalize the sector that drives the rest of the economy. The case for a permanent capacity for strategic planning on our manufacturing base, evolving and innovating to make use of our workers’ skills and the latest technology as well as to respond to global trends, could not be stronger.”
Read more here.
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Letter calls for appropriate remedies against illegally subsidized paper imports from China…
A bipartisan group of 109 U.S. Senators and Members of Congress representing 30 states have signed a letter to President Obama urging him to investigate subsidies provided by the Chinese government to its paper industry. The bipartisan letter, spearheaded by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), along with Reps. Michael Michaud (D-ME-2) and Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI-11), calls for the application of “all appropriate and necessary remedies” to combat unfairly subsidized paper from China, which puts hundreds of thousands of U.S. paper industry jobs at risk if left unchecked.
The Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) commends these members for recognizing the threat of China’s unfair trade practices and immediately taking steps to fight for their constituents. A recent Economic Policy Institute (EPI) study found that the Chinese paper industry has benefited from at least $33 billion in subsidies from 2002-2009, with paper production in China tripling over the last 10 years.
Both labor and management agree that domestic paper jobs will remain in jeopardy because of illegal subsidies given to Chinese paper producers. From 2002 through the end of 2009, overall employment in the U.S. paper and paper products sector dropped 29 percent, from roughly 557,000 workers to 398,000. As AAM Executive Director Scott Paul explains, unless subsidized paper imports are properly addressed, more U.S. jobs will be lost.
“China’s massive subsidies to its paper sector are doing severe damage to the U.S. paper industry,” said Paul. “U.S. policymakers must take action against China’s blatant violations of trade laws, including sweeping subsidies to paper and many other industries. We thank the 109 Senators and Members of Congress who have sided with the American workers and signed the letter to President Obama.”
The United Steelworkers (USW), which represents roughly 130,000 U.S. paper industry workers, also praised the letter, with USW International President Leo W. Gerard saying, “We commend the action taken by this bi-partisan group of U.S. Senators and Congressional members demanding that China obey international trade laws. Too many jobs and too many companies are being destroyed because of how China subsidizes production and violates free trade principles in paper manufacturing as well as in other industries.”
A copy of the letter to President Obama is available here. A list of members that signed the letter, along with a breakdown of paper jobs by state and Congressional District, is available here.
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Northvale, New Jersey: RAB Lighting has announced that it now offers outdoor lighting in compliance with the Buy American requirements of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). For 40 years, RAB has employed union workers from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 3, AFL-CIO.
According to a press release on the company’s Buy American compliance announcement, “RAB is committed to creating sustainable, long term, jobs in the USA.”
RAB’s Buy American-compliant products focus on sustainable lighting technologies and include:
Recent RAB pojects include municipal water treatment facilities in Pennsylvania. RAB has also completed several projects for the military.
Read more here.
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Greencastle, Pennsylvania: Jerr-Dan Corp., a maker of towing and recovery equipment, is closing its two Greencastle plants. 100 workers are expected to lose their jobs.
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Harold Meyerson says the American jobs machine isn’t what it used to be.
Rep. Levin introduces a bill to spur job growth in the manufacturing and clean energy sectors.
Democrats are holding onto a manufacturing agenda for dear life.
Plus, IMF says the yuan is “substantially undervalued.”
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As Russell Hubbard reports in the Birmingham News, a “loophole” in U.S. trade law is helping imported sleeping bags overtake domestic producers.
The Generalized System of Preferences, a program authorized by Congress in 2006, allows certain products from developing nations to be imported free of tariffs. Apparently sleeping bags don’t qualify as a textile or related product, and so companies in Bangladesh are sending tariff-free sleeping bags into the U.S.
The result: Exxel Outdoors, which says it operates the last U.S. factory producing mass-market sleeping bags, is losing market share. Orders are dropping and plans to hire new workers have fallen by the wayside.
Exxel has been manufacturing 2 million sleeping bags per year, and sales of those sleeping bags have been providing a good living for more than 10 years for about 65 workers in Winston County, Alabama, where unemployment has been hovering at about 15% recently.
Now, however, the future is in doubt.
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The website of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) details the “Make it in America” legislative initiative from House Democrats to increase American manufacturing and create new American jobs. As a recent AAM poll shows, the American public strongly supports a renewed focus on American manufacturing.
The website reports on current and pending Make it in America legislation.
“Make it in America” bills that have passed the House:
•U.S. Manufacturing Enhancement Act
•Strengthening Employment Clusters to Organize Regional Success (SECTORS) Act
“Make it in America” bills that are scheduled to come to the House Floor:
•National Manufacturing Strategy Act
•Clean Energy Technology Manufacturing and Export Assistance Act
•End the Trade Deficit Act
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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued its review of the Chinese economy and found that the yuan is “substantially undervalued.” This adds yet one more voice to the international clamor for action to address China’s ongoing currency manipulation.
It should come as no surprise that the IMF sees China’s currency as undervalued. The EU, Japan, and WTO have previously lodged complaints about China’s currency peg. What really matters, though, is what Congress plans to do in response.
As House Democrats move forward on a “Make it in America” agenda, ManufactureThis hopes that legislation to address currency manipulation will be at the top of the list…
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