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‘Buy America’ Puts People to Work
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A new report presents clear evidence that including Buy America provisions in last year’s stimulus package has created jobs and makes the case that the rules should be strengthened in jobs legislation being considered on Capitol Hill.
The 17-page report, “Buy America Works,” by the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), highlights success stories showing how Buy America provisions have benefited U.S. companies. Like United Streetcar in Oregon, that is manufacturing the first U.S.-made streetcars in 60 years and supporting a supply chain across the nation. Or Arcelor Mittal in Pennsylvania, that is building rail tracks for southeastern Pennsylvania.
Earlier this week, AAM field staff converged on Capitol Hill to urge their lawmakers to maintain and enhance Buy America requirements in jobs legislation now before the Senate, where some Republicans want to weaken the rules.
Says AAM Executive Director Scott Paul:
It would be foolish to dilute or eliminate Buy America rules at such a critical time for our workers and economy. The wind farms, bridges, and new schools of America should be made in America. We urge Congress to incorporate strong Buy America rules to ensure that tax dollars are invested in communities all over our nation.
Polls show 86 percent of Americans support requirements for American-made materials in all federally funded infrastructure investment. More than 500 local, state and municipal governments have passed “Buy America” measures.
Writing on Daily Kos, The Electrical Worker points out that if the Senate passes the jobs legislation with strong Buy America provisions, one of the beneficiaries could be members of the independent United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) Local 506 in Erie, Pa., who perform electrical maintenance and large-scale projects in the 100 year-old locomotive manufacturing plant owned by GE Transportation. Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 56 also performs electrical maintenenace at the plant.
The bill includes $800 million for modernizing Amtrak’s fleet. The House jobs bill strengthens “Buy American” language which could help GE to land work in the factory which cut 1,500 jobs last September.
The United States also should have its own “Buy America” program for federal procurements, which represent 20 percent of our nation’s gross domestic product. Writing in a special report by The American Prospect magazine on American manufacturing, the authors point out that the United States is the only nation among the G-20 not to have a significant “buy domestic” procurement program:
…yet no single economic stimulus initiative would do more to resuscitate U.S. employment and reduce our massive trade deficit. In May, China, which is by far the single largest importer of goods to the U.S., confirmed its policy of 100 percent domestic procurement. We should call our new comparable requirement the “U.S. Domestic Investment Act.”
Check out this special edition, “Made In America: Reviving American Manufacturing (before it’s too late),” here. It examines the causes of the decline in manufacturing and how we can rebuild our economy by investing in making products in America. It also includes key insights from United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard and Machinists President Tom Buffenbarger and economists Robert Kuttner and Jeff Faux.
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10 Comments
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“Buy American” for many folks means buy from Walmart. Unions have to promote that all buy “American” at every opportunity
One of the biggest buyers of foreign made materials is of course our governments (state, federal and local). Folks should put pressure on the elected ones to change this.
I would encourage AFL-CIO to promote “Buy American” even harder. It should be one of the major thrusts of your campaigns.
What about a campaign for people to buy “Made in USA”?
i went to buy a coffee maker that is made in america, could not find one. try to buy a pair of works boots made in america-hard to find. the afl-cio should post a list of ”made in america products”
Although they’er not union Bunn coffe makers are made in Creston, IA. I think this is the cheapest one: http://www.bunnomatic.com/retail/products/b.html
Red Wing shoes and boots are union made in Red Wing, MN:
http://www.redwingshoes.com/
There is a union coffee maker mfr., but they extremely high end commercial. This was the cheapest one I found on their site:
http://www.cecilware.com/displayproduct.aspx?prod=554
AFL-CIO does have a list of union made products but it’s really out of date. They still list Electrolux which closed all of it’s U.S. factories 2 years ago: http://www.unionlabel.org/
As a Brother and Steward of the Union in Erie this article refers to, I would like to identify ourselves as United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) Local 506, not IBEW 56
As consumers, it is a very simple equation, buying American-made= more American jobs. Look at the “made in…” labels and if the store that you are going to is not providing American-made products (I know that they can be hard to find sometimes), then let the store manager know that is what you are looking for. After all, we as Americans have a vested interest in doing this!
What exactly is made in America anymore???
- Chevy (canada/mexico/china) maybe a little production in the USA
- Walmart (they create companies in other countries to produce products the products they sell at “rock bottom prices”)
-Pretty much every major electronics business (production oversees)
Pretty much everything sold in the us to everyday consumers says “Made in China” or “made in somewhere other than USA.”
If you don’t like the fact that products aren’t made in the USA, blame publicly traded companies!!!! they are forced to grow annually to continue producing financial returns for their shareholders, therefore forced to grow sales or cut their bottom line every year, eventually driven to outsource production to foreign countries! it’s a simple pattern and happens to the best of publicly traded companies.
http://www.inovahire.com
you have some valid points. What is “made American” in these times?
About the only things one can guantee made in America anymore are from prison farms that dot the landscape of the nation. Not too much outsourcing there
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by cormac827: http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/01/29/buy-america-puts-people-to-work/...
AMERICAN JOBS WERE SOLD OVER A 30 YEAR PERIOD TO OVER SEAS FOR BIGGER PROFIT ! THEY WERE SOLD BY CONGRESS AND THE U S SENATE BY DEMOCRATS FOR MONEY FROM SPECIAL INTEREST AND THROUGH THE HANDS OF LOBBYIST , WE HAVE 35,000 LOBBYIST REGESTERED IN WASHINGTON THAT + ABOUT 64 LOBBYYIST PER CONGRESS MAN , THERE LOTS OF MONEY TO BUY THERE VOTES OR FOR THEM NOT TO VOTE AT ALL … AMERICANS NEED TO GET THE FACTS ON HOW THEY OUR VOTE AND YOU CAN CHECK THIS ALL OUT ON NUMBERSUSA.COM
YOU WILL SEE THEY OUR NOT VOTING FOR AMERICANS OR AMERICAN JOBS OR UNIONS , UNIONS SPEND A BILLION A YEAR ON THEM AND WE GET IN RETURN , ILLEGALS AND FOREIGN BORN WORKERS TO TAKE OUR JOBS THIS IS FACTS THE UNION WONT TELL US , AND NONE UNION PAYS THROUGH LOBBYIST TO GET OUR JOBS IN THE AREAS WE LIVE , MONEY TALKS FOLKS ! 32 MILLION FROEIGN BORN WORKERS WITH WORK PERMITS AND 14 MILLION ILLEGALS FROM 1990 TO 2000 THATS 46 MILLION FOREIGN PEOPLE IN THE USA IN 10 YEARS AND THE HERIRAGE FOUNDATION SAID IT CAST FROM 1994 TO 2004 89.6 BILLION JUST TO DEAL WITH ILLEGALS IN THE USA THAT 19,500. FOR EACH PERSON OVER TEN YEARS WE HAVE ABOUT 350 MILLION PEOPLE IN AMERICA AND WAIT TILL THE 2010 CENSUS ! WE SHIP JOBS OVER SEAS AND WE BRING MILLIONS HOW DOES THAT WORK FOR UNIONS IT DOES NOT AT ALL !
THE PROBLEMS IS THE DEMOCRATS AND ALL FREAKY THINGS THEY STAND BEHIND AND ALL THE BILLS AND POLICYS AND GIVING EVERTHING AWAY TO FOREIGN CONTRYS AND OPEN THE DOORS TO THE GATES OF HELL AND TELL THEM ALL COME TO AMERICA AND THEN 9/11 XMAS BOMBER AND ITS JUST GOES ON AMERICA … THE UNION NEED TO GET HONEST AND STAND UP AND FIGHT FOR ITS MEMBERS AND GET THE HELL OUT OF OBAMS BED AND BE HONEST WITH AMERICANS AND UNION MEMBERS , THEN WE WILL HAVE JOBS AND HONEST GOVERNMENT .