[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 154 (Tuesday, September 26, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H7518-H7520]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRADE AND JOBS HEARING IN BROOK PARK, OHIO
(Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, during the August recess, I organized a
district field hearing to hear firsthand accounts from America's
workers, my constituents, on NAFTA's disastrous job impacts. These
voices must be heard and listened to as our Nation renegotiates NAFTA.
These real stories are the people who live the impacts of Washington's
agreements.
I thank the Local United Auto Workers Chapter 1250 for graciously
hosting us, a region that lost over 14,500 jobs after NAFTA's passage
to Mexico and to Latin America.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the testimony of Amy Hanauer of
Policy Matters Ohio, Donnie Blatt of the United Steelworkers, and Mark
Payne of the United Auto Workers.
Amy Hanauer, Policy Matters Ohio
Representative Kaptur and others, thank you for the
opportunity to testify today alongside these strong community
leaders. I'm Amy Hanauer and I run Policy Matters Ohio, a
policy research institute dedicated to creating a more
vibrant equitable, sustainable, and inclusive Ohio. Find us
online at www.policymattersohio.org.
Trade and jobs in Ohio: Key principles to improve outcomes
for workers
NAFTA and other trade agreements have eliminated jobs in
Ohio and the United States. Manufacturing remains an
essential part of Ohio's economy, despite its downturn. Smart
policy can strengthen Ohio manufacturing while making our
economy greener and stronger Some key recommendations
include:
Invest in infrastructure, particularly clean energy
Invest in solar panels and wind turbines
Structure these projects carefully, prioritizing good jobs
and diverse workers
Support American manufacturing through proven programs
Support manufacturing extension programs
Buy American when spending public dollars
Support smart worker training
Improve trade agreements
Increase worker protections
Improve environmental standards
Eliminate special courts
As we have long documented at Policy Matter, the North
American Free Trade Agreement and other trade agreements have
not accomplished what they were supposed to in Ohio. Our
current trade rules favor multi-national corporations and
their investor over workers and citizens. As a result, these
policies have reduced the quantity and quality of domestic
jobs, thereby exacerbating wealth inequality. Many
multinational corporations that once employed people here
have instead located in places with lower wages, fewer
environmental regulations, and weaker labor regulations.
NAFTTA rules made that shift easier.
One reason these deals have been so destructive is that
they transfer power away from citizens and to international
investors. They bar nations, states, and cities from enacting
labor and environmental policies that protect the public.
They block local governments from using policy to boost
demand for domestic products, such as local sourcing.
NAFTA was promoted as being broadly helpful to Americans
and our trading partners. But the economist Susan Helper
recently testified that NAFTA slowed wage growth in U.S.
industries and regions. This hurt not just manufacturing
workers, but also service employees, as displaced
manufacturing workers sought jobs in restaurants and retail
and as laid-off workers had less to
[[Page H7519]]
spend in the economy. In Mexico as well, wages stayed mostly
flat even though productivity increased. Mexican
manufacturing wages remain well under 20% of U.S.
manufacturing wages.
The Economic Policy Institute found that NAFTA cost the
U.S. 683,000 jobs from 1994 to 2010. Manufacturing, as a
sector, lost the most, 60.8 percent. Geographically, Midwest
states like Ohio took the hardest hit. NAFTA also displaced
Mexican small farmers and business owners, and did not raise
wages relative the U.S. Despite that, the treaty became a
model for the World Trade Organization, China trade
normalization, and other deals As a result of all of these,
economist Jeff Faux estimates an additional net loss of 2.7
million U.S. jobs and economist Josh Bivens found that the
typical American with just high school degree loses $1,800 a
year.
Manufacturing has declined, but remains an essential part
of Ohio's economy. One in eight Ohio employees works in
manufacturing. We had 687,000 manufacturing workers in 2015:
only California and Texas have more. Average wages of $1,119
a week were 24.9 percent higher than in other sectors. Ohio
manufacturers contributed $108 billion to the economy in
2015, 17.8 percent of the total for the state. So that sector
is responsible for one in every six dollars and one in every
eight jobs in Ohio. The typical worker with a high school
diploma and no college earns $2.99 more per hour in
manufacturing.
While the sector has generally lost employment over the
past several decades and in the most recent recession, some
signs point to a partial recovery. Good policy, including
trade policy, can make this more likely. There are clear
things we can do to improve policy so that workers and the
environment on all sides of the border are better protected.
At Policy Matters, we recommend three large policy
priorities to address these issues:
Invest in infrastructure, especially energy: America's
infrastructure is crumbling around us and we are completely
underinvested in infrastructure that would reduce energy use
and address other environmental problems. We should get to
work now, upgrading, maintain, and building infrastructure
that would strengthen our communities and make our planet
more sustainable, and we should make sure that American
products are used throughout these projects. To name a few
priorities:
We should install solar panels on every public building in
the United States, buying from American companies and having
unionized tradespeople do the installation. Right here in
Cleveland there are entrepreneurs selling solar panels and
they argue that even here in snowy Cleveland, many
residential solar installations now pay for themselves in
less than a decade and commercial systems will pay for
themselve in less than six years. Representative Kaptur is a
longtime champion of this approach, and Toledo, with its
extensive glass-making history, has a strong supply chain
that could play a key role in this work.
We should be installing wind turbines wherever appropriate,
using Ohio's substantial supply chain to produce component
parts for these turbines. Here in Cleveland, we continue to
want to see the Lake Erie Economic Development Company
project build the first fresh water wind farm in the country
on Lake Erie. We got some great news just this week that this
project cleared another hurdle and is moving forward--but
movement has been much slower than needed because public
policy at the federal and state level just down no
incentivize this kind of job-creating energy-generating
investment.
These projects should be structured carefully. There are
sound principles at the website millionsofjobs.org that I
encourage you to look at, but some of the elements we support
include supporting direct public investment, not tax
giveaways for corporate subsidies and making sure that these
projects are union-built, have inclusive workforces that
represent the diversity of the communities in which they're
being done, and have worker and environmental protections. SA
mentioned, all of these projects should pay decent wages,
should source from U.S. made products, and should prioritize
the needs of disadvantaged communities--both urban and rural.
Finally, these projects should be paid for through fair,
progressive taxes so that the wealthiest Americans and giant
corporations who reap the greatest economic benefit from
public goods pay their fair share.
Support American manufacturing through proven programs:
Manufacturing Extension Partnerships (MEPs) help
manufacturers work together to solve problems and find
solutions to assist their sector. They assist with research
and development, commercialization, joint marketing and
branding, worker training, identifying new technology, share
investments like makerspaces, and reshoring. The federal
government should deepen investments in MEPs. Instead
President Trump's budget proposal threatens to entirely
eliminate this modest but successful program. Similarly, the
manufacturing innovation institutes that have been so
successful, including one in Youngstown, face 70% cuts in the
Trump budget.
Buy American: We should Buy America provisions for all
public spending at all levels of government. Senators Rob
Portman and Sherrod Brown have both voiced support for these
important provisions and I would urge you to join in that
support. The Trump Administration should apply Buy America to
all federally-funded infrastructure projects. President
Trump's intent in this area is not entirely clear and we
should encourage him to make good on promise he has made to
support American products. While Buy America rules apply to
some federal infrastructure programs, many taxpayer-funded
projects still lack rules requiring the use of American-made
projects. Brown's proposed legislation would ensure Buy
America rules apply to all federally-assisted projects.
Invest in worker training: The Workforce Investment and
Opportunity Act, WIOA, trains and educates workers, focusing
on career pathways and apprenticeships. By incorporating a
strong understanding of the labor market, WIOA is
transforming the workforce system for those who face
significant barriers to employment. The act pushes the public
sector to better serve low-skilled, low-income adults so they
can achieve not just self-sufficiency, but real economic
mobility. Ohio trains have been working hard to take
advantage of these new approaches. For Ohio workers who
face barriers to employment and tough job markets, it's
essential that we all deliver. Yet, this program too is on
the chopping block under the Trump Administration. The
Trump budget calls for cuts of approximately $1 billion
from the WIOA program. The cuts represent about a 40
percent reduction from current funding levels and would
have devastating impacts on states and local communities
seeking to address the kill needs of businesses and
jobseekers. Instead of cutting WIOA, we should be
enhancing it.
Improve trade agreements. This encompasses three primary
provisions.
Increase worker protections. NAFTA has reduced bargaining
power for workers in both the U.S. and Mexico. Workers and
their representatives have little ability to object to
sweatshop conditions or labor law violations. At most they
can call for consultations that have no enforcement
mechanisms. Investors have much more power to object and much
stronger mechanisms to do so. Worker representatives from all
countries in an agreement should be brought in to propose
standards. I encourage this committee to consul the AFL-CIO
(2017) and the Roosevelt Institute (Tucker, 2017) about how
best to remedy this in renegotiation.
Improve environmental protection. Environmental protections
in NAFTA are relegated to side agreements with no enforcement
provisions. This is why we've seen more use of polluting
fossil fuels, less protection of greenspace and forests, and
more deeply problematic mining since NAFTA. Other testimony
today provides more detail on how best to address
environmental concerns, but minimally, those who breathe the
air, drink the water, and suffer from global warming should
have as much power as multination corporations to raise their
issues. (350.org et. Al, 2017)
Eliminate special courts for investors. NAFTA established
special courts where firms can challenge government policies
that affect their investments. These ``investor-state dispute
settlement'' (ISDS) mechanisms undermine democracy and
national sovereignty. This system should be eliminated so
that citizens again have the ability to advocate for the laws
they think will best protect their communities.
In sum, there is much that federal policy can do to create
fair trade, to promote American manufacturing, and to improve
job quality and availability. We decide the kind of economy
we want to have and we can choose one that does more for our
families, communities, and planet. We appreciate your
interest in exploring and further those policies.
____
Donnie Blatt, Assistant to the Director, United Steelworkers--District
1
I would like to thank the sponsors for holding this event,
UAW Local 1250 and its officers and of course our great
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur. Congresswoman Kaptur has been a
great public servant for many years and has been a great
friend to the United Steelworkers, not only in her
Congressional District but all over Ohio and our Nation. I
want to thank her personally for her role in the re-
negotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA). The United Steelworkers have been involved in the
trade debate since NAFTA was incepted in 1994 and we are
happy for include our voice going forward to again try to
make trade competitive and fair for all workers, not just in
the United States, but for the workers of our trading
partners as well.
As an International Union that represents workers in a wide
range of sectors, not just steel but aluminum, tire and
rubber, glass, paper, auto parts, fabrication, public sector
and many more. We have a wide range of knowledge on trade and
how trade affects not only the U.S. workers, but also the
communities where they live. The biggest problem with NAFTA
and similar trade agreements is that it allowed for multi-
national corporations to shift jobs wherever workers can be
exploited and environmental regulations are the weakest. Even
with the promises of great economic growth for all the U.S.
Labor Department certified nearly 1 million manufacturing
jobs has been lost just with the NAFTA agreement alone.
With NAFTA and other NAFTA-style trade policies such as
Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China (PNTR), the
Central
[[Page H7520]]
America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and the Korea-U.S. Free
Trade Agreement (KORUS), the United States has closed roughly
60,000 manufacturing facilities here at home. To put things
into perspective, this represents 3 times the number of
people that live here in Brook Park, OH. If you would go
around Brook Park today, every man you would see would be
equal to 3 manufacturing facilities closed, for every woman
you would see would be equal to 3 manufacturing facilities
closed and for every child you would see would be equal to 3
manufacturing facilities closed. The 60,000 closed facilities
equates to around 5 million lost manufacturing jobs. This
number represents the entire population of the states of
Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota
combined. It's not just about manufacturing jobs, the U.S.
has also experienced job loss in the sectors of computer
programming, call centers, engineering and service sector
jobs as well and many other employment sectors. In Ohio
alone, since NAFTA, we have lost over 300,000 manufacturing
jobs which is more than every man woman and child that lives
in the city of Cincinnati.
Along with the jobs that are lost directly in
manufacturing, there are effects to the local community.
First, because manufacturing jobs typically pay more than
other jobs in the area, when they are lost there is a natural
downward pressure that is put on wages and benefits to
remaining jobs in the immediate area. Secondly, the
combination of the lost manufacturing jobs and the downward
pressure on the remaining jobs means less money for the
community tax base, which affects the schools, police and
fire departments, roads and bridges and other public
services. This means the public sector workers are left
struggling to maintain a decent standard of living for their
families. Donald Trump has been right to highlight NAFTA and
the impact it has had on our trade deficit. Yet his
administration has failed to propose the bold changes needed
to properly replace NAFTA, reduce our trade deficit, and
create more manufacturing jobs that would raise wages for
workers at home and abroad, as was promised.
There are conditions needed in future trade agreements that
the Trump Administration has not committed to, to make trade
fair and a level playing field. First, we a strong and
enforceable labor and environmental standard that will not
only lift wages and protect jobs here at home, but will lift
working conditions abroad. So far the Trump Administration
only seeks to use the weak and unenforceable standards from
previous agreements. Second, we ned to end investor state
protections that make it easier for multi-national
corporations to shift jobs overseas and end investor state
dispute settlements that allow corporations to sue the United
States taxpayers because of a law that may protect its
citizens yet may increase corporate production costs. Third,
we need stronger rules of origin laws and close the back door
that allows parts made in China and Vietnam and assembled in
the United States and labeled made in the USA in order to get
tariff relief protection. Tariff deduction should not be
granted unless the majority of the product is made here at
home. Lastly, we need to end the NAFTA ban on ``Buy America''
so tax dollars can be used as much as possible to create jobs
that local communities desperately need. The White House plan
to renegotiate NAFTA is vague on these four points. If the
NAFTA renegotiations process is going to benefit American
workers we have to hold the White House more accountable for
these promised changes and more.
Finally, the NAFTA renegotiations cannot be done behind
closed doors with corporate advisors dictating the terms of
the Agreement. This creates too many conflicts of interests.
They must be transparent and exposed to public scrutiny. The
United Steelworkers stand ready to lend their voice and
resources to ensure these points are part of any NAFTA
renegotiations. Thank You Congressman Kaptur for your work
and your consideration.
____
NAFTA Hearing, Mark Payne
I am here to talk about manufacturing in Cleveland and the
effect NAFTA has had on our Site. At one time our Site had
over 14,000 workers. Our Aluminum Plant phased out 2005 and
the equipment was loaded up and sent to Cifunza, Mexico.
Our Casting Plant phased out in 2010 and its work was sent
to Mexico and Tupy, Brazil. Engine Plant 2 Phased out in 2012
and is now sitting idle. This Plant won the Shingo Award for
best quality!
What is the common denominator here? Bad Trade
Agreements!!!!
We battled against the EPA Restrictions in the Casting
Plant. We fought against low wages from other countries.
How do you compete against poverty wages? Against lax EPA
standards from other countries? Against a lack of investment
in America?
Across from our Union Hall once stood our Casting Plant, it
is now just an open field . . . Was it dirty work, yes, but
it was our work!!!
Our workers know the effects of a bad Trade Agreement!
But, we did not have a Level Playing field!
Trade Agreements seeks to drive down our wages in a race to
the bottom. The current Mexican auto worker wage has even
fallen under NAFTA, from $3.95 an hour to $2.93 an hour.
With fair competition we have proven that we will excel in
the global marketplace. But we must have a living wage for a
fair day of work. We must invest in America.
The problem is our Trade agreements ``perception'' of
progress, without making any. The problem is our trade
agreements reward Companies that take work out of America.
Are the Trade agreements unlocking the opportunities for
America or are we just widening the lane for our jobs to
leave America?
Trades Agreements has cost Ohio over 323,000 manufacturing
jobs. Under NAFTA the trade imbalance in the auto sector has
grown from $3.5 billon in 1993 to $45.1 billion in 2016.
Ford will say that they were only following their ``Way
Forward'' Strategy. For Cleveland NAFTA has been a job
killing strategy.
No one can tell me that low wages mixed with lax EPA
standards was not a part of Ford's ``Way Forward'' decision
to relocate our work.
Nothing stings worse than having your jobs moved to another
country produce the product you used to make, and have that
same product brought back into this Country for us to buy.
In Cleveland, we are slowly coming back, we produce the 3.5
and 3.7 V-6 Ecoboost engines and we were able to accomplish a
``reverse NAFTA', bring work from Spain to Cleveland when we
launched a new 4 cyl engine. We are also slated to produce
the engine from the New Ranger/Bronco vehicles coming out in
2019.
Work coming back to Cleveland is like Lebron James coming
back to the Cavs. They should have never left! Ohio is a
great place for work to come to . . . no social unrest, just
hard working men and women from a blue collar town, building
quality engines.
In closing, I want to thank Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur for
fighting the good fight and for supporting good paying jobs
in America once again. Congresswoman, Spread our message! The
UAW has your back!
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, they directly know the negative impacts of
NAFTA. Amy stressed the changing nature of manufacturing in Ohio,
making up one of eight jobs. Donnie discussed how Ohio has lost over
300,000 manufacturing jobs as well as the imperative for a new NAFTA
transparent agreement. Mark Payne spoke about the need for a
continental living wage and investment in American job growth. All
three emphasized a deal that works for jobs here in America, America's
workers, and Buy American provisions.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues and the administration to take heed
of their testimony. We need to create jobs here in America and across
this continent that are living wage jobs.
____________________