[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 10, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H3642-H3643]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 EVEREADY AND THE ENERGIZER BUNNY JOIN THE NAFTA DRUMBEAT OF JOBS AND 
                          WAGES LOST TO MEXICO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio [Ms. Kaptur] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, everybody knows the Energizer Bunny. He has 
been around since the 1980's, and appeared in more than 40 commercials 
with his sunglasses and that little drum. Everybody knows his message: 
The bunny just keeps going and going and going.
  Well, last week Eveready Battery Co., maker of the Energizer battery 
and the largest manufacturer of dry cell batteries in the world, 
announced that it would be closing its factory in the town of Fremont, 
OH, and moving all of those jobs to, you guessed it, Mexico; 250 more 
citizens of our country earning between $10 and $15 an hour whose jobs 
are now on the chopping block, outsourced again to a low-wage nation 
that has no responsibility on environmental considerations. This gives 
new meaning to the Eveready slogan, it just keeps going and going and 
going, because those workers in Fremont, OH, now understand what that 
Energizer bunny is drumming all about.
  This particular company is part of a larger trend since NAFTA: a 
quicker pace of companies moving from our country, moving good jobs 
that used to pay good wages with benefits in this Nation to low-wage 
environments, keeping pressure here at home for jobs that are more 
temporary in nature, more part-time, with no health benefits, and with 
retirement benefits threatened every step of the way.
  Throughout our country companies are moving production and jobs to 
places like Mexico at a faster pace. In fact, when we add up these 
Eveready lost jobs, the numbers of people that have already been 
certified as having been terminated as a result of NAFTA now number 
over 140,000 around our country, including in States like my own, in 
Ohio.
  We have seen textile and apparel plants leaving the American 
Southeast. We have seen electronics companies leave Massachusetts and 
Indiana. We have seen the destruction of the tomato industry in 
Florida. We have seen the potential for tens of thousands of jobs in 
the automotive industry to evaporate as companies locate plants in the 
border areas of Mexico. We have seen the potato industry in Maine laid 
low because of imports from Canada, and the wheat growers and cattle 
growers in the Plains States under assault.
  The downward pressure on wages and benefits continues around this 
Nation. NAFTA is making its effects felt in communities throughout our 
Nation, and no region is exempt. You can run, but you cannot hide from 
the effects of NAFTA.
  Today the Associated Press reports that the community that has been 
most hard hit by NAFTA is, you would never have guessed it, El Paso, 
TX. That is right, El Paso, TX, right there on the border, the same El 
Paso, TX that proponents of NAFTA predicted would be one of the 
greatest beneficiaries of the trade agreement. El Paso was once a 
stronghold of the garment industry, but the community has now lost over 
5,600 jobs since NAFTA.
  Coming in second is Washington, North Carolina, which has lost 3,400 
jobs because of NAFTA. If anything, these statistics understate the 
dimensions of the losses, because not all workers who lose their jobs 
are reported to the Government of the United States at the Department 
of Labor.
  By the way, it is the U.S. taxpayers that end up paying the costs of 
unemployed workers that are displaced due to this trade agreement when 
production is moved outside the United States. Most American citizens 
do not understand that. They think if people are put out of work, 
somehow the companies end up paying the costs of the workers' 
replacement in another field. That obviously does not happen.
  Is that not a fine how do you do? Not only do the companies leave and 
they take the jobs elsewhere, but then it is the people of the United 
States through their tax dollars that have to subsidize the movement of 
these workers to hopefully some other job or some type of training.
  We do know in all of the studies that have been done that when people 
leave one job and move to another, they rarely are employed at the same 
wage level, they rarely get the same benefits, and in fact, since 
NAFTA's passage, most of these people have seen their standard of 
living erode in an economy that is supposed to be just doing 
wonderfully.
  I will submit for the Record the article that was in the Associated 
Press this morning, that El Paso leads the Nation in lost jobs, and an 
article from the News Messenger in Fremont, OH: ``NAFTA Cited in 
Eveready Loss,'' as further evidence that the agreement is not working.
  The articles referred to are as follows:

                [From the News-Messenger, June 6, 1997]

NAFTA Cited in Eveready Loss--Toledo Area U.S. Rep Blames Fremont Plant 
                       Closing on Free Trade Pact

                             (By Lynda Rea)

       Eveready Battery Co.'s decision to close its Fremont 
     factory is the latest tragedy resulting from the North 
     American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Toledo's U.S. 
     Congresswoman says.
       ``Every single job we lose is a tragedy for the people who 
     are terminated and the community in which they reside,'' the 
     9th District's Marcy Kaptur said.
       ``Eveready advertises they `keep going.' Well, I guess they 
     are going. This is 250 workers--that is a huge, huge loss for 
     us.''
       Eveready announced earlier this week it would close the 
     newly-renamed Energizer factory in 12 to 14 months and move a 
     portion of its production to Mexico, eliminating 250 local 
     jobs.
       Asked whether NAFTA played a role in the decision, Eveready 
     officials emphasized that the reason instead is declining 
     consumer demand for carbon zinc batteries, which do not last 
     as long as alkaline batteries.
       Domestic production of carbon zinc batteries, which are 
     made in Fremont, has dropped to 30 percent of what it was in 
     1986, Eveready spokeswoman Jill Winte said.
       ``NAFTA has not been a factor in the decision-making 
     process,'' Winte said. ``The carbon zinc battery is just a 
     declining segment of the market.''
       Kaptur says companies are heading south of the border--
     taking 140,000 American jobs with them since NAFTA started--
     because of fewer environmental regulations and because they 
     can pay laborers ``pennies.''
       ``They all use the excuse they have to compete globally, 
     except all the companies who are doing this are all multi-
     nationals and they seek the lowest standards.''
       Comparing Mexican wages to Americans' wages and, more 
     importantly, to corporate profits, ``makes me sick,'' Kaptur 
     said.
       Employees at Fremont's Eveready earned $12 to $18 an hour, 
     with the average worker earning around $13, Eveready 
     spokesman Keith Schopp said.
       Various sources place the typical Mexican wage between 80 
     cents and $1.50 an hour, which Kaptur called ``hunger 
     wages.''
       Fremont's closing will create a ``small number of 
     incremental jobs'' in Mexico, but it is too early to 
     determine the number, Winte said.
       ``There is no question that the average wage in the U.S. is 
     higher than the average wage in Mexico or outside countries, 
     but that was one of many factors the company considered,'' 
     Schopp said.
       ``The main reasons are the U.S. market is moving away from 
     carbon zinc batteries and we need to consolidate production 
     for the Western Hemisphere.''
       Eveready already has moved production from Brazil, 
     Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador into the existing Eveready 
     plant near Mexico City, which employs 900 people, Schopp 
     said.
       U.S. Rep. Paul Gillmor, R-Old Fort, said he found it 
     ``disturbing'' that local production was going to Mexico, but 
     added he does not blame NAFTA.
       Americans were complaining about jobs going to Mexico long 
     before NAFTA began reducing tariffs and other trade barriers, 
     he said.
       NAFTA has eliminated a 20 percent duty on American products 
     shipped to Mexico and a 10 percent duty on Mexican products 
     shipped to the U.S., Gillmor said.

[[Page H3643]]

       ``I don't want to see these jobs or any other jobs go to 
     Mexico, but the idea that because the Mexicans had to lower 
     tariffs it has hurt American jobs defies any logic,'' he 
     said.
       Gillmor said NAFTA has had little impact in the Fifth 
     District, which includes Sandusky County. His 1996 poll of 
     124 firms, employing 17,000 people, found that 72 percent 
     reported no impact on business by NAFTA. Eighteen percent 
     said NAFTA had helped their business and 10 percent reported 
     it had been detrimental.
       A local business expert, Richard Smith of the Sandusky 
     County Economic Development Corp., said American companies 
     moving to Mexico is a trend related to NAFTA.
       ``Personally I think these are short-term solutions,'' 
     Smith said. ``In the long run, quality will suffer. . . . 
     They are leaving behind quality labor when they do that.''
       Kaptur could not agree more.
       ``We have had dozens of closings in Ohio already,'' Kaptur 
     said, listing Goodyear and Allied Signal as examples of 
     movers to Mexico.
       `` . . . I say to them, `You sell your product there and 
     don't send it back here. We are not interested.' ''
                                  ____


          El Paso Leads the Nation in NAFTA-Related Job Losses

       El Paso, Texas (AP).--El Paso, once a garment-industry 
     stronghold, has lost more jobs than any other U.S. city since 
     the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect in 
     1994, U.S. Department of Labor statistics show.
       In El Paso, 5,623 jobs have been lost. Coming in second is 
     Washington, N.C., which has lost 3,400 jobs because of NAFTA.
       El Paso mayor-elect Carlos Ramirez said the losses show the 
     city needs to give selected industries strong incentives to 
     come to the city and stay.
       ``Our economic development areas have to be in jobs where 
     not only we have an economic advantage but also where we have 
     an economic multiplier, such as international trade, light 
     manufacturing and high-tech,'' Ramirez said.
       No figures are kept on jobs created by NAFTA in El Paso. 
     But Ramirez said that from January 1994 to January 1997, El 
     Paso's total number of jobs grew by 13,200 to 236,500.
       NAFTA lowered trade tariffs among the United States, Canada 
     and Mexico beginning in 1994. The Labor Department's numbers 
     cover job losses attributed to trade with Canada and Mexico 
     from January 1994 until April 30, 1997.
       Nationwide, the Labor Department counts 124,616 NAFTA-
     related job losses, 45 percent of them from work moving to 
     Mexico. Most of El Paso's NAFTA-related layoffs occurred when 
     companies closed plants and moved operations to Mexico.
       The majority of NAFTA layoffs, 77 percent, were in the 
     garment industry. Some analysts said the industry was moving 
     production out of the country before NAFTA anyway.
       ``El Paso concentrates on men's blue jeans, men's shorts, 
     basically men's clothing, which is very standard. And that is 
     the easiest thing to move offshore.'' said Raul Hinojosa, 
     director of the North American Integration and Development 
     Center at the University of California at Los Angeles.
       Unlike the garment industry, the trucking industry has 
     benefited from NAFTA. More than 500 trucking jobs have been 
     created in El Paso in the past year alone.
       When the Labor Department certifies jobs as lost because of 
     NAFTA, the displaced workers become eligible for government-
     paid retraining.
       Armida Arriaga, 56, worked in the El Paso garment industry 
     for 18 years. In May 1996, she lost her job as a seamstress 
     at Tex-Mex Sportswear when the company moved work to Mexico.
       ``I've used the NAFTA benefits, I'm studying English like 
     others. But I'd prefer to have a job,'' she said.
       Arriaga's benefits, which have included unemployment pay 
     and paid retraining, come to an end in August and she's 
     worried she will not have learned enough by then.
       ``I'll have to find work, and in sewing there aren't many 
     jobs any more,'' she said. ``That was my profession. I have 
     little hope they'll take me.''
       Some efforts are under way to extend NAFTA benefits for 
     displaced workers: a worker's advocacy group, La Mujer 
     Obrera, is pushing for bilingual training programs.
       U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, is proposing $12 
     million for NAFTA's Transitional Adjustment Assistance 
     program. Budget disputes in Congress have so far kept the 
     proposal off the next budget.

                          ____________________