Holiday Gifts for the Activists on Your List
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Most of us still have some holiday shopping to do and here are a few suggestions that can keep you out of the lines at the malls and big-box stores and warm the heart of any good trade unionist or progressive on your list.
David Prosten reminds us that Union Communication Services (UCS), the labor movement’s all-union, 100 percent labor books bookstore, is a good place to find the gift of solidarity. They have a sleigh full of great stocking-stuffers for the labor activist in your life, union hall or workplace.
Click here to see a special selection of books and other goodies from the UCS catalog. Some of the best of the best are featured here, including two brand-new, just-added titles—Working Words, a collection of prose and poetry from Bob Dylan to Eminem to Amiri Baraka, and Rebel Voices, the IWW anthology.
Also at UCS, check out the recently published children’s book Which Side Are You On? The Story of a Song. It tells the story of the song, written in 1931, that has become an anthem for people fighting for their rights all over the world, through the eyes of song author’s Florence Reece’s 11-year-old daughter. The song was written as the Reece family huddled under the bed as bullets from coal company thugs tore through their Kentucky home.
Your holiday gifts can fight human trafficking and modern-day slavery when you Read the rest of this entry »
Widely Cited Report on U.S. Manufacturing Obscures Firm’s Offshore Agenda
A new exposé, published by Remapping Debate, lifts the veil on how the anti-regulatory, anti-labor line finds its way into media coverage of business, all under the guise of objectivity.
When the Boston Consulting Group, one of the nation’s largest consulting companies, issued a report on U.S. manufacturing in August, it earned a full-page story in the Financial Times, and uncritical mentions in the New York Times and Washington Post. But the report’s cheerful title, “Made in America, Again: Why Manufacturing Will Return to the U.S.,” belied its underlying agenda, say experts interviewed by Remapping Debate’s Mike Alberti—an agenda steeped in a low-wage, anti-regulatory ideology.
In fact, the report actually lauds the declining working conditions endured by employees of U.S. companies as a good thing and a harbinger of why companies may want to consider moving operations back to the United States—particularly to southern states, where anti-labor practices too often reign and living standards are lower than in the rest of the country. From “Made in America“:
The conditions are coalescing for another U.S. resurgence. Rising wages, shipping costs, and land prices—combined with a strengthening renminbi—are rapidly eroding China’s cost advantages. The U.S., meanwhile, is becoming a lower-cost country. Wages have declined or are rising only moderately. The dollar is weakening. The workforce is becoming increasingly flexible. Productivity growth continues.
Made in America, Made for the World
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In a special July 4 guest column, Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing says one way we can all show our patriotism and boost the economy is to do our best to buy American-made products.
Enjoy the fireworks today and thank our Founding Fathers for the freedom we enjoy. While you are at it, thank them for making manufacturing a central part of the American idea.
Paul Revere was a patriot; he was also a manufacturer. In fact, the company bearing his name still operates today, now in upstate New York. Alexander Hamilton is well known as our nation’s first Treasury secretary, but few Americans know that he also wrote our nation’s first manufacturing policy in 1791.
That manufacturing policy, coupled with the best workers, resources, universities and economic development strategy, made us the world’s leading manufacturer by 1900. It’s a title we held for 110 years, and sadly, one we are now relinquishing to China.
Here’s What Happens When Manufacturing Disappears
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Steve Cappozola of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), reports on what happens when manufacturing jobs disappear. This is a cross post from the AAM website.
Last week, Manufacture This published a chart showing how lost manufacturing jobs correspond with lower state revenues and higher state budget deficits.
We thought we’d amplify that point by citing a sad and disturbing New York Times article on the exodus of Detroit’s population. With Michigan hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs, Detroit’s population has fallen by 25 percent over the past decade. The result? 237,500 residents have left town. Read the rest of this entry »
ABC Series ‘Made In America’ Features U.S. Products
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Check this out. ABC World News this week is spotlighting products that are ”Made in America.”
Recognizing the connection between a strong industrial base and a vibrant economy, the feature on American-made products asks, “how we can bring jobs back to the U.S.?”
To focus on the importance of buying Made in USA goods, ABC is attempting a reality show-style experiment: “Is it possible for an all-American family to live life with only all-American products?”
AAM Highlights Safe Toys and Made-in-America Holiday Gifts
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Do news stories of tainted toys imported from China have you thinking twice about what you’re putting under the tree? The Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) suggests parents take a look at the wide range of toys and games offered by NMC Toys.
NMC Toys was founded in 2007 by Kerry and Andrew Menger, the parents of two small children who say the rash of recalls and reports of toxic and dangerous toys made in China, along with shoddy quality, spurred them to establish NMC.
NMC is not the maker of the toys but the retailer, and all the toys on NMC.com meet or exceed U.S. safety standards and include the country of origin. The toys are designed for children eight years old and younger. Say the Mengers:
Read the rest of this entry »
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs Made in America
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* For months, we in the union movment have been calling for Congress to do more—much more—to create jobs. Now, the long-term jobless rate for workers is the worst since the 1930s Depression—some 45 percent of unemployed workers have been without jobs for more than six months—and calls for federal action on jobs are coming from across the nation. Check out New York Times columnist Bob Herbert here and here who blasts congressional inaction, as does his employer, here. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich puts it bluntly: We have a jobs emergency.
As Herbert says in his devasting portrait of a Congress out of touch with the suffering of America’s workers:
The BP Disaster-China Connection
A bipartisan poll shows the majority of voters believe the nation’s economy is no longer the strongest economy in the world and we need an aggressive national manufacturing strategy to regain our pre-eminent position. Here’s one reason why. When the blow-out preventer on the Deepwater Horizon rig needed to be modified, it was sent to China, according to the UK’s Guardian newspaper.
Pointing out the BP disaster-China connection, Scott Paul, director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), says:
Wow. If China can’t keep cadmium and lead out of children’s bracelets, it’s hard to understand why BP—flush with profits—would trust a Chinese firm to overhaul a key component in the Deepwater Horizon rig simply to save money. This is, after all, a life or death issue for oil rig workers. If the modification in China led to the failure of the blow-out preventer, what a monumental miscalculation it was, costing lives and causing our nation’s most severe environmental disaster.
Findlay, Ohio, Chamber of Commerce Kills Parade Because Unions Backed It
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The Chamber of Commerce—that’s the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—proved once again how anti-American it is when it comes to supporting U.S. industry.
In Findlay, Ohio, unions had been organizing a parade and all-day event for this Saturday to highlight American-made products and the need for U.S. trade and economic policies that reward job growth in this country. The unions worked hard to get the business community involved and spent months meeting with the city’s Republican mayor, who supported the plans.
But in the end, GreaterFindayInc., the local Chamber arm, killed the Heart of Commerce and Community Celebration.
Says Donnie Blatt, United Steelworkers (USW) Rapid Response coordinator for District 1: “GreaterFindlayInc. did everything they could to sabotage us. They told business not to cooperate with us.”
Tell Bill O’Reilly to Buy USA-Made T-Shirts for His Patriot Store
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We heard Bill O’Reilly is having trouble finding American-made T-shirts to sell in his Patriot Store. We know he’s heartbroken because, after all, what good is a Patriot Store if its products are made in El Salvador or Haiti? (Especially if you’re selling red, white and blue “American Patriot” T-shirts, like the one on the left.)
We heard he can’t find made-in-the-USA T-shirts because O’Reilly said so himself (h/t to D-Day). In his “Mailbag” segment on May 22, O’Reilly took the following question from Stewart Hollins in Rio Rancho, N.M.:
Mr. O, great looking mugs. Terrific bold and fresh shirts. Where are the items made?
And O’ Reilly responded:
Mugs are made in the USA, Stewart. The shirts in Central America. We cannot get the volume of shirts we need made in America, sadly.
Actually, Bill, you can. And not only American-made, but union made. And there’s nothing more patriotic than buying the products made by the heart of America’s working middle class.
