Sen. Graham Threatened ‘Guns a-Blazing’ If NLRB Moved on Boeing
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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) threatened to come out with “full guns a blazing” against the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) if NLRB acting-General Counsel Lafe Solomon issued a complaint against the Boeing Co., charging it with moving production away from its Washington State facility in retaliation for the workers exercising their right to strike. The call occurred nine days before the NLRB issued the complaint April 20.
Graham’s threats were revealed in Solomon’s notes on the phone call that The Hill newspaper obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. In those notes Solomon writes:
He said that if a complaint was filed, it will be very, very, nasty.…He said that if a complaint was issued he was going “full guns a-blazing.”
Since the complaint was issued, Republican lawmakers have threatened to cut the NLRB’s Read the rest of this entry »
Update: You Stopped the Attack! Act Now to Stop the Latest Attack on the NLRB
UPDATE: Senate voted 15-15 on the Graham amendment, meaning it’s now dead. Thanks to everyone who took action yesterday to cut short this attack on the NLRB.
and Shortly this afternoon, Senate Republicans will press forward with a political agenda that does the bidding of big corporations and leaves working people behind. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is pushing an extreme amendment to curb the ability of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to do its job.
Act now. Click here to find office phone numbers of swing senators and call them and urge them to vote “no” on the Graham amendment.
End the Denial. Label China a Currency Manipulator
America and China are publicly in denial about currency manipulation. Both officially state that China is not devaluing its currency.
In mid-March, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao flatly denied that China deliberately suppresses the value of its currency against the dollar, a practice that decreases the price of its exports and increases the cost of American goods imported into China. Similarly, the U.S. Treasury Department, which is required by the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 to name foreign currency manipulators in biannual reports, has not in the past decade and a half called out China—including in the past two reports submitted during the Obama administration.
China and America decline to acknowledge what everyone else knows: China suppresses the value of its currency to gain a trade advantage over America. The New York Times reported on the practice in a story published March 14, describing how currency manipulation has worked wonders for Chinese industry while killing American manufacturing. (Click here to tell the Treasury Department to stop denying that China is manipulating its currency.)
Trade Deficit Costs Jobs in Every Congressional District
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Members of Congress, listen up: The nation’s huge trade deficit, mainly with China, has cost jobs in every congressional district, according to a report issued today by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Contrary to conventional wisdom, high-tech industries are losing jobs faster than any other sector of the economy.
Since 2001, some 2.4 million jobs have been lost or displaced in this country as a result of the massive trade deficit with China, the report says. More than one-quarter—26 percent or about 628,000 jobs—displaced by trade between 2001 and 2008 are in computer, electronic equipment and parts industries. Last year alone, China was responsible for more than 80 percent of our total, nonoil trade deficit in goods.
The report cites China’s currency manipulation as a major cause of the trade deficit. Over the past decade, China has consistently undervalued its currency by an estimated 35 percent to 40 percent. As a result, while imports from China and U.S. trade deficits set records, American manufacturing employment has plummeted. Other causes of the deficit include massive industrial subsidies in China, lax labor and environmental law enforcement, intellectual property theft and piracy and Chinese policies that block U.S. imports. Click here to read the report.
China Currency Bill: ‘Major Step’ Forward
Bipartisan legislation to address “egregious and ongoing” currency manipulation by China and other nations is a major step in the fight for good jobs and fair trade, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said.
The Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2010 was introduced today by Democrat Sens. Charles Schumer (N.Y.) Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) and Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Olympia Snowe (Maine), with 10 other co-sponsors. In a statement, Trumka said:
At a time when America’s working families need good jobs now, the illegal undervaluation of currency, by China and other governments, has spelled the loss of millions of American manufacturing jobs.
The U.S. Treasury Department for years has refused to cite China’s government for currency manipulation, which would set off a process by which the administration can impose trade penalties. The legislation would bring the Treasury definitions more in line with International Monetary Fund guidelines, making it easier to determine currency manipulation. The bill also provides meaningful sanctions, including countervailing duties or tariffs, if currency negotiations fail.
