[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 6 (Tuesday, January 27, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H119-H120]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    JOBS AND THE PRESIDENTIAL BUDGET

  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, tonight while Americans are watching the New 
Hampshire primary in anticipation of new leadership for our Nation, 
they are watching and waiting for the new budget proposals from 
President Bush. President Bush came to our Toledo community last week, 
the day after he delivered the State of the Union address right here in 
this Chamber.
  He ran into a hornet's nest. The community college where he spoke had 
just announced layoffs in the workforce training field the President 
was there to highlight. The unemployment in Toledo had just increased 
to 8.4 percent. Our part of the country has been hit extremely hard by 
the jobless recovery. We have more than 300,000 unemployed workers in 
the State of Ohio, and that, of course, does not even count the workers 
who have given up looking.
  The family-owned tool and die shops that dot the landscape of the 
Great Lakes region are dying. I received an e-mail last week from one 
of these small business owners telling me about the devastation in the 
tool and die sector. ``I have something that most of you should be 
concerned about in Congress. I just counted the auction brochures I 
have collected since February 1, 2002, until January 22, 2004. Would 
you believe 629 auctions?'' And those are just the ones this 
businessman received.
  He says, ``Our President thinks that everything is great and our 
economy is bouncing back and we will all be in the bucks this year. I 
have received a report that estimates 50 percent of the shops in the 
Detroit area will fold by the end of 2004. So how do you get this 
message up to Washington? I guess we need to fire up the voters and 
clean house this fall. Have a good day. Larry.''
  In his State of the Union address, President Bush failed to mention 
extending unemployment benefits. This is a huge issue in our part of 
the country. People have paid for those benefits and they do not 
understand why the Republicans would refuse to extend unemployment 
benefits. They certainly do not understand why the Republicans refuse 
to allow even a vote on extending unemployment benefits.
  In the short term, unemployment benefits are highly stimulative for 
our local economy. They prevent a cratering of consumer demand, and we 
all know that the consumer is propping up this weak U.S. economy. In 
the long term, a countercyclical program for public works jobs could 
help a lot. Investing in our communities and putting people to work so 
that our deficit starts to come down makes sense.
  Just replacing one city's, Toledo's, wastewater treatment system, the 
bill for that $400 million. Indeed, that is double the $250 million the 
President said he wants to spend nationwide on new job training 
programs. Investment in public works can put people to work. Frankly, 
we have people out of work now who already have the skills needed to 
assume a job.

                              {time}  2000

  They just do not have the jobs.
  I just visited Sunoco Refining in my district. They had advertised 
for 10 people in that company; 2,400 people applied. That is a 
staggering indicator of how many people are looking for work in just 
one place in America.
  A news article in the Grand Rapids, Michigan, paper just north of 
where we live announced the closure of Electrolux, a household name in 
this country. They make vacuum cleaners; 2,700 workers will be 
terminated. Their jobs are leaving for Mexico.
  What kind of strange world is it when an American legend company like 
Electrolux that made vacuums that are bought by our own citizens, but 
then those jobs move to Mexico and made there by workers who make a 
dollar an hour but cannot afford to buy the vacuum cleaners because 
they are all shipped back here to the United States, what kind of sense 
does that make?
  We have seen this system time and again. The people in Mexico who 
have the jobs that the people in Ohio used to do do not make enough 
money to buy the very products they make. Americans lose their jobs to 
Mexico, and they have to shop more at discount stores such as Wal-Mart 
that are filled with goods made by people who had the jobs that the 
shoppers used to have. It is really interesting. We are outsourcing 
that production.
  So the question is, are we going to be a Nation of workers, builders 
and producers, or are we going to be a Nation of discount shoppers 
looking for that last bargain while wondering how to survive without a 
decent wage and without health care coverage? That is really the choice 
of this year's Presidential race.
  Mr. Speaker, I am surely glad this is an election year. It is time 
for America's voters to really ring in a hopeful and really productive 
new year for our country.
  The article I referred to earlier I will include at this point in 
this Record.

              [From the Grand Rapids Press, Jan. 17, 2004]

      Whatever It Takes--City Is Down But Not Out Over Electrolux

            (By John Hogan, Matt VandeBunte and Julia Bauer)

       The thermometer outside Greenville's Chemical Bank 
     registered a bone-rattling 2 degrees at daybreak Friday, 
     although morning commuters didn't need a sign to tell them of 
     the chill.
       Three miles away, pickups with cold, anxious Electrolux 
     workers idled in snow-covered parking lots. Even though these 
     third-shift workers punched out at 7 a.m., they waited 30 
     minutes to learn whether their jobs were heading 1,400 miles 
     south, where it was a relatively balmy 51 degrees. Electrolux 
     worker Jerry Cannon was not one of them.
       The longtime Greenville resident decided he would rather 
     sip coffee at Mike Huckleberry's restaurant a mile away.
       ``It's kind of hard to make yourself go to work when you 
     know what's coming,'' said Cannon, a welder trying to raise 
     four teenagers on $15.61 an hour. ``I think Electroux knew 
     Oct. 21 what they were going to do. I wish they would just 
     have told us.''
       Indeed, Friday's ``official'' 7:30 a.m. announcement by 
     Swedish-based Electroux that it will close Montcalm County's 
     largest employer in 2005 was anticlimactic.
       Townspeople and employees saw the handwriting on the wall--
     notably the corporate statement one week before that a city/
     state incentive package fell far short of an $81 million 
     annual goal, the amount Electrolux said it would save by 
     moving.
       Some Electrolux workers will return to school; others hope 
     the improving economy brings jobs. Their message? Don't cry 
     for Greenville.
       This town of 8,000 thrived on timber well before 
     refrigerators came along, they say, and it will thrive long 
     after refrigerator production moves to South Carolina and 
     Mexico.
       Bold? Perhaps. Mike Huckleberry calls it a homegrown 
     confidence that Swedish executives, NAFTA and milquetoast 
     politician's cannot derail.
       I'm confident, and my fellow businessmen are all confident 
     Greenville will survive,'' said Huckleberry, who opened his 
     downtown restaurant 12 years ago.
       Once you work through feelings of betrayal, or ``pure 
     corporate greed,'' as some workers suggest, there's 
     confidence. It is expressed in American flags, warm greetings 
     and handshakes in a town founded 160 years ago when New 
     Yorkers John and Deborah Green opened a sawmill on the Flat 
     River.
       If you have any doubts, stand under the Chemical Bank sign 
     on the south side of M-57 west of downtown, and note the 
     stream of taillights heading to jobs in Grand Rapids.
       ``We're getting people willing to drive to Grand Rapids 
     because it's only 30 miles away and they still get the 
     benefits of small-town living,'' Huckleberry said.
       Greenville Mayor Lloyd Walker agrees. ``Greenville is not 
     going away,'' he said. ``We're king of the trading center for 
     a larger area of up to 100,000 people.''
       Although Electrolux rejected annual incentives of $48 
     million--saying they were nearly $33 million short--Walker is 
     confident the same package can draw interest from other U.S. 
     manufacturers.
       ``The incentive package will be in place,'' Walker said.


                            number crunching

       Until a week ago, the Electrolux Task Force thought it had 
     gathered nearly $7 million in annual tax incentives and $30 
     million in cost savings from a proposed new factory. Union 
     leaders proposed another $31.6 million

[[Page H120]]

     in concessions, or about $13,000 for every worker.
       The package from UAW Local 137 required membership 
     approval, which was far from guaranteed.
       Final tally: $68.6 million, just $12.4 million short. Or so 
     they thought.
       But Electrolux whacked $20 million off the estimate for 
     newplant savings, casting the total package into a $32 
     million hole. Filling it would have cost more than $27,000 a 
     year per worker.
       At $15 an hour, most workers earn just over $31,000, plus 
     about $12,000 in benefits.
       ``Overall, our analysis of the proposed new factory would 
     save less money annually than was anticipated in the 
     estimate,'' Electrolux spokesman Tony Evans said. ``Also, it 
     would cost for more to construct and operate than was 
     anticipated.''
       Huckleberry, 55, a Greenville Chamber of Commerce board 
     member, says he believes all the work that went into the 
     incentive package still can bear fruit. Other 
     manufacturers have already made queries about future uses 
     for the plant covering three city blocks on the west side 
     of North Irving Street.
       There is still caution, certainly.
       In addition to the 2,700 workers who lose their jobs, more 
     than 800 others work for area companies that send 
     refrigerator parts to Electrolux. Among the largest is 
     Clarion Technologies, which makes vegetable crispers.
       ``It's not just suppliers, it's 2,700 people who aren't 
     coming in to have coffee,'' retiree Donovan Harms said over a 
     cup at Middlebroook's Bakery and Coffee Shop in downtown 
     Greenville. ``It's going to put a real bummer on this town. 
     We'll survive, but the town certainly won't be the same as it 
     is now.


                               moving on

       Area churches are mobilizing to offer counseling for 
     Electrolux employees, and are planning a community worship 
     service.
       ``We are going to do whatever it takes to heal and move 
     on,'' said the Rev. Jerry Jones, pastor at First 
     Congregational Church of Greenville. Apathy, not Electrolux, 
     is the biggest enemy, he said. The community must pull 
     together ``with a message of hope.''
       As if to convince himself things will be all right, 
     Huckleberry embraced two customers--both Electrolux workers--
     as they left his restaurant mid-morning Friday. ``We'll make 
     it. You guys will be OK,'' he said.
       Many of the workers, some 60 percent who live in Montcalm 
     County, feel the same way.
       ``We all built this place; my dad started here in 1966,'' 
     said 47-year-old John Baker, who today marks his 26th year 
     with Electrolux.
       He married in November and a year ago bought a home in 
     Lakeview, about 25 miles away.
       ``It's going to be hard for a guy like me to find a job,'' 
     Baker said. ``I've thought about going back to school. 
     Hopefully it'll work out.''
       ``I've been getting ready for this day,'' said 43-year-old 
     Gordy Heminger of Belding, who plans to go into house 
     construction. ``A lot of the guys in the plant, even the 
     older ones, are going back to school. What else can they 
     do?''
       Huckleberry is quick to point out the plant will be making 
     refrigerators through 2005, plenty of time for the city and 
     its workforce to make necessary adjustments.
       ``We've got an airport, an industrial park and homes are 
     being built all over,'' he said. ``This isn't going to happen 
     tomorrow. We've got two years to figure this out.''
       True enough, agrees 39-year-old Shirlene Taylor, who 
     stopped in with a friend Friday for scrambled eggs and toast.
       ``The people you work with are like family, but the big 
     corporations don't care about that,'' said Taylor, who 
     recently lost her job at Attwood Corp. in Lowell, a former 
     subsidiary of Steelcase. ``We'll make it. Greenville is still 
     a wonderful town.''
                                  ____


              [From the Grand Rapids Press, Jan. 17, 2004]

               One Big Job Lies Ahead For Last Two Years

                            (By Julia Bauer)

       Electrolux workers will have plenty to do in the months 
     until their plant closes.
       Assembly of basic refrigerator models is moving out of 
     Greenville to make way for a new Electrolux brand that will 
     look like a built-in.
       ``Our South Carolina factory specializes in top-freezer 
     refrigerators,'' Electrolux spokesman Tony Evans said. Both 
     Greenville and the Anderson, S.C., plant can produce the 
     models with the freezer on top, which can run up to 18 cubic 
     feet.
       ``We've had that ability to build certain of those models 
     in any location,'' he said.
       Once that production moves out, Greenville employees who 
     are all facing layoff next year will start preparing for the 
     new line, at least for a few months. The plant is scheduled 
     to close in 2005.
       ``We are about to go into manufacturing of a new product, a 
     counter-deep refrigerator,'' Evans said. ``The cabinet is 
     roughly 24 inches deep, so it matches your typical 
     countertop.''
       Greenville workers will cover the startup, but eventually 
     the refrigerators will bear a ``Made in Mexico'' label.
       Electrolux plans to spend $150 million to open a plant in 
     Mexico.
       ``Ultimately, those products would migrate to the new 
     factory,'' Evans said. The company is providing no specifics 
     on the location for the Mexico plant, although officials in 
     the border town of Ciudad Juarez say they have hosted company 
     representatives in recent weeks.
       No new employees will be needed in South Carolina, Evans 
     said. Most of the focus will be on the move to Mexico and 
     production of the ``mass luxury'' model. Electrolux has not 
     estimated how many employees the Mexico plant will need. The 
     plants on the border with Texas employ Mexican factory 
     workers who earn $1.57 an hour plus benefits.
       Electrolux cites the high labor costs at the union plant in 
     Greenville, where wages are $15 an hour, plus benefits. The 
     plant has won awards for high productivity, and its division 
     is making a profit.
       But Electrolux is seeking higher revenues with lower labor 
     expense. The last major upgrade at Greenville, a $100 million 
     retooling for Frigidaire's ``Next Generation'' line, was 
     plagued with delays and cost overruns that added another $40 
     million to the final tab. The startup required more employees 
     and more overtime, and it resulted in missed deliveries.
       At the last quarter conference in October, analysts told 
     Electrolux chief executive Hans Straberg they were concerned 
     with the company's ability to efficiently install another new 
     line in Greenville, then move it to Mexico.
       Electrolux, based in Stockholm, Sweden, is scheduled to 
     report its financial results for 2003 on Feb. 12.

                          ____________________