Buy American
Local steelworkers attend rally in CharlestonBy DAVE PAYNE Sr.
Article Photos
CHARLESTON - A group of local steelworkers gathered in Charleston Wednesday to tell lawmakers they want West Virginia's share of the federal stimulus package to be spent on American goods and services whenever possible.
The caravan of steelworkers and concerned citizens left the United Steel Workers of America Local 5668 hall in Ravenswood for the Buy American rally at the Capitol Rotunda.
The $800 million stimulus plan is to foster economic growth. The recession has struck Ravenswood with the February closure of Century Aluminum and 651 jobs lost.
Alcan machinist Anthony Nichols said he is one of a lucky few at the plant to still have a job. He traveled to Charleston with the caravan Wednesday in hopes of keeping it.
"We need to be investing in American families and jobs instead of buying foreign metal. I'm still working, but there's always rumors going around. You try not to worry, but it's hard not to. You just hope and pray that they don't shut our part down, too," he said.
Congress last month passed the $800 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The vote was along party lines with only three Republican senators voting yes despite the party's overwhelming support for Republican President George W. Bush's bailout of the banking industry last year.
West Virginia will receive $1.8 billion.
Several dozen people came from the Northern Panhandle on a second bus and joined their steelworker brethren in Ravenswood. Among them was Weirton Steel worker Brad Battista.
He said the decline of American manufacturing has had severe repercussions throughout the economy.
"People have lost their pensions, health insurance, life insurance, everything. We used to be the auto industry's best customers. Now, we are sitting on the sidelines with high-mileage cars. We are going down to listen and make political contacts and try to get a resolution passed that says our infrastructure money should use American manufacturers and stimulate our economy, not China's," he said.
The group wants the money spent on American goods and services whenever possible and is not opposed to foreign-owned companies that employ American workers, Alan Sampson, a spokesman for the steelworkers union, said.
United Steelworkers spokesman Ike Gittlen said to truly be effective, as much of the stimulus money as possible needs to remain in the United States, although in some cases, foreign products would need to be purchased when there is no viable American-made alternative.
"It is insane to take the money and run it through the economy and then give it to somebody outside by buying foreign products, the same people who loaned us the money in the first place," he said.
However, Delegate Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, doesn't think it's that simple. He said that such protectionist government stances never have the intended result.
"One of the things that exacerbated the 1929 recession and turned it into a depression was the Smoot-Hawley Act that put up protectionist borders around the nation. If we put up a block on our economy and ask other nations to buy our exports and us not buy their imports it just does not work that way," he said.
The act was signed into law the year following the 1929 stock market crash as an effort to protect American industry by placing tariffs on imports, thus making American goods comparatively cheaper for the consumer. America's trading partners passed retaliatory measures of their own against American goods and international trade came to a virtual standstill.
West Virginia's exports in 2008 were $5.6 billion, according to an estimate by the U.S. Census, a 73 percent increase over 2004 exports. Coal comprised about 37 percent of those exports.
That market leaves West Virginia in a vulnerable position to make a wrong impression, Carmichael said.
"West Virginia is an export state. The Ravenswood plant has been a huge exporter, the Toyota plant, we have a lot of good export companies. This is the wrong way to go people need to hear the truth," Carmichael said.
The Alliance for American Manufacturing, however, contends that, unlike tariffs, a buy-American stance would have little or no effect on America's $4 trillion global trade.
Delegate Dan Poling, D-Wood, said the caravan doesn't just send a message to lawmakers, but consumers as well.
"The caravan is an excellent way to get people to stop and think when they go to a store and pick up something made in China. They don't normally stop to think if they could buy the same thing made in America."
Poling said he sees it as a necessary measure to protect the state's interests.
"Anytime we can use our money to buy products made in America, it's a good thing. When the Ravenswood plant shut down, it was a good example of industry leaving this country and going somewhere else. Those jobs lost are good-paying jobs with health insurance, benefits. Those are the people who have the money to buy cars, go on vacation. Without jobs like that, the whole economy shuts down. Those people are taxpayers; they make a significant contribution to the tax base," he said.
The group packed into the Capitol Rotunda to hear lawmakers and Gov. Joe Manchin extoll the virtues of keeping American capital at home.
''All we're saying is, as Americans, let's take care of America,'' Manchin told the cheering crowd, whose members wore baseball caps and union jackets and waved signs with messages like ''Land of the unemployed, home of the hungry,'' according to the Associated Press.
Manchin has been active in pursuing foreign investment in West Virginia, and led a trade delegation to China in 2007, but said he draws the line at making it easier to ship American jobs overseas.
''To subsidize another country that takes our jobs is one thing we can't tolerate anymore,'' he said, according to the AP.
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DCGibson
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03-05-09 11:40 PM
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scary times.
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DCGibson
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03-05-09 11:39 PM
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I find it disturbing from alot of these posts people don't seem to care about buying American. I know its difficult to do Walmart represents about 2% of China's economy. And everybody seems to go to Walmart for everything. I don't I will if I have to use their restrooms they are very clean. All you have to do is go online to see what products are made in America . Does the American worker not matter anymore ? A safe workplace , quality product that will not poison a child if they put it in their mouth, or the damage done to the enviornment .Most important a "living wage". China and Mexico have no EPA no OSHA and no workers rights , and they work for 50 cents an hour 14 year old kids , Nike has a plant in Viet Nam for crying out loud. If we are not an industrial power we are not a military power second to none , and this economy doesnt turn around don't think we won't be vunerable . China is turning a good percentage of the Walmart cash into its military . We are living in sc
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buffster1
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03-05-09 10:17 PM
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thesafe1, Is your personality that bland that you cant detect sarcasm when you see it? no I dont think we should boycott walmart (check spelling for mrdontknowcrap.) I'm like you i will buy the best quality product for the money. I was poking fun of all the folks that think every single product they own must be american made.
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mrknowitall
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03-05-09 9:45 PM
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And by the way, Buffster, how on earth can you spell "Walmart" incorrectly? Time to break out the old dikshinary...
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mrknowitall
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03-05-09 8:00 PM
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I think this kind of thinking is GREAT!!! In fact, let's take it down to the state level. NO state should buy a product made in another state. I'm sure West Virginia would be BOOMING with a law like that!! It's my money. I earned it. I will buy the product that provides me with the best value for my money. Period.
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LilyOValley
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03-05-09 5:31 PM
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Finally, NAFTA of course, exerts no control whatsoever over our trade with China.
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LilyOValley
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03-05-09 5:29 PM
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Fact ERROR!!!! NAFTA was NOT 'conceived' in the Clinton administration. It was 'conceived' before that, during the George H.W. Bush administration, under negotiations that began in 1990. The original NAFTA was singed "ceremoniously" by G. H. W. Bush, Carlos Salinas, and Brian Mulroney in December, 1992 (while Bush was a "lame duck"). But the official legislation was not ready for signature until after Clinton had taken office, and Clinton was a strong supporter of NAFTA, so he signed it (some may also remember that Clinton ran as a centrist "new Democrat" also). But it was also Clinton who introduced after the fact of the 'ceremonious' agreement, various clauses to protect American workers and provide for additional environmental protections. Bush had left these out. The House approved the final NAFTA in 1993, with more Republican (132) than Democrat (102)supporters. Treat facts with respect, please. as were both parties generally, and it was
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LilyOValley
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03-05-09 5:19 PM
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I strongly believe China will escape this global recession far stronger. After all, their economy is still growing at about an 8% level, and they have all the money too. So guess what? The "Communists" are being more sucessful by the usual yardsticks of capitalism than the capitalists are. They have a very big bureaucratic government with one party. And just how do folks explain this?
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LilyOValley
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03-05-09 5:17 PM
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Gee, I didn't know I had a 'class'. Am I upper-class perhaps? What class is Crazy-Larry. I also didn't know I wanted to control Larry with 'my' government. Maybe Larry can tell me exactly how it is I am doing that.
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thesafe1
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03-05-09 2:24 PM
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Yea that's real smart. Boycott the nation's 2nd largest employer during a recession. You're a smart one.
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buffster1
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03-05-09 1:40 PM
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I agree with thmountainr58, its hard to buy american products when the store shelves are void of american made products alltogether. a family member of mine just had a baby and i was in the wallmart baby section and just for fun i was looking to see where the stuff was made and every item in that section was made in china. Thats wallmart for you, maybe americans should boycott wallmarts.
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thmountainr58
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03-05-09 1:12 PM
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That is the Real Challenge, in America, finding something in a store, saying Made In America.
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thesafe1
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03-05-09 11:46 AM
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I'm bashing my own kind here. I'm union, and it's ridiculous. There are plenty of people who would do my job for half the pay and be thrilled with their paycheck. Unions absolutely crushed the competitive advantage of buying american cars.
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DCGibson
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03-05-09 10:50 AM
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Toyota has maybe 1,000 retiree's hard to believe they have been here that long. GM Ford Chrysler each have about 200-300 THOUSAND. American cars are just a good as Japan or Germany ships over here . I'm sick and tired of hearing people UNION bash . The Unions did not sell this country out to China over the last 20 years . When times were good everyone wanted an SUV The big three built and they sold like hotcakes, everyone made money. More foreign cars are made in this country than American ones . I;m glad for all those folks that have a job at Hino in Williamstown but that is a travesty !!!!! Why can't it be a Ford or GM plant ? WE invented color tv , the cam corder , cellular telephone but we don't make up. The foundation for this economic disaster was poured thirty years ago. Don't blame an American worker UNION or NON-UNION !
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thesafe1
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03-05-09 10:20 AM
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It's funny, the unions got auto factory workers making $40 an hour to bolt the same panel to the same door for 8 hours. Now when GM charges twice as much for a domestic car than a foreign company does we're supposed to buy American? I love my country, but I'm not stupid. The big 3 deserve what they get, and then maybe they'll reinvent themselves by not bowing to the unions. If the workers want to be unionized, they'll need to learn to back off a bit. Their salaries and benefits are what drove the prices of their products so high.
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gorilla
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03-05-09 8:54 AM
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airman 1 - is correct it's Democrats and Republicans. Example; NAFTA trade agreement with Canada and Mexico was conceived by the Clinton administration and embraced by th Bush administration. It was sold to the American citizens as free trade with our next door neighbors. But in reality it was not a fair trade agreement. Since the NAFTA was signed in 1994 the United States has a combined deficit to Canada and Mexico of +/- $1,969,437,500,000 and an unknown number of lost jobs.
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airman1
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03-05-09 8:12 AM
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We're flooded with Chinese goods because our politicians (in both parties, mind you) have sold us out. We keep borrowing more and more money and the Chinese keep loaning. I read that if we were forced to pay China back right now, every person in America would owe $38,000. Plus, the big-governement, labor union bullies aren't helping us to compete. If anything, that's part of what's holding us back.
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mythravere
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03-05-09 7:15 AM
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Our economy can not sustain itself on service sector jobs. Not only has the lack of manufacturing hurt the economy but also the ability to produce war goods if necessary. China has with the expansion of their economy ramped up the expansion of their Military tremendously with spending going up a further 15%. So when China decides its time to bring Taiwan back into the fold our government being the interventionist that it is will most certainly stick its nose where it does not belong. Our soldiers will pay the butchers bill for that. They outnumber us in military terms and their war production would out produce us. We have enriched a single country to our own detriment. People down protectionism but why can we be the producers of the world again why does it all have to be in china. A lot of the goods from there are questionable in quality anyway. I think its high time we take back the ability to produce a lot of goods for ourselves. There is nothing wrong with that.
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CrazyLarryJones
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03-05-09 7:12 AM
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Aw honey, you think the government is going to save you, that is your ism. I believe in capitalism, the free enterprise system, survival of the fitest. It is pointless to argue here, the failure the country is experiencing is what you call success. A great opening for your class to impose more government on the people. I may return to this page later, but right now I have to go work.
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LilyOValley
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03-05-09 7:03 AM
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Ah, maybe we have one! But what about the "socialism" rant?
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LilyOValley
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03-05-09 7:02 AM
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Do any of the conservative rightwingers wish to stand up here and point out that 'buying American' is "socialistic" and not the same as a true "free market" where the buyer just buys what is (sometimes, at least) cheaper and (sometimes) better? Where are the "socialism" screamers? Where are you?
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CrazyLarryJones
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03-05-09 7:02 AM
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I will purchase the best product for the best price, whether it is American or foreign made.
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