[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10716-10717]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            TIMKEN PLANT CLOSINGS ELIMINATE 1,300 OHIO JOBS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, about a year ago, April 24, 2003, 
President Bush came to Canton, Ohio, to address workers at the Timken 
Company, a company which makes ball bearings and other metal products. 
The President chose his visit to Timken to showcase his economic 
policy. During his speech, the President told Timken workers:
  ``Here at Timken last year, productivity rose 10 percent. Which means 
that America can compete with any nation in the world because we got 
the finest workers in the world.''
  President Bush told the Timken workers that if his tax plans were 
enacted ``more than a million new jobs will be created by the end of 
2004.'' He then went on to say, ``That's what the whole purpose of our 
economic package is, to create the conditions for job growth so people 
can find work.''
  One million jobs created by 2004. He was so confident of this that he 
mentioned it twice during his speech. Last week the Timken management 
announced the company will close its Canton plant, eliminating 1,300 
more Ohio manufacturing jobs. Third- and fourth-generation workers at 
this plant who helped build this company now face unemployment. Timken 
is closing its Canton plants, three of them, while building another 
facility in China.
  Like a host of other predictions and promises delivered by President 
Bush, the record just has not matched the rhetoric. The Bush economic 
record of the last 4 years, ship jobs overseas, give tax cuts to large 
corporations, help corporations reap big profits, lay off American 
workers. It happened at Timken. It has happened at plant after plant 
after plant in my State and all over the country. In my State alone, we 
have lost one out of six manufacturing jobs since President Bush took 
office. One hundred eighty thousand manufacturing workers have lost 
their jobs. That comes out to about 200 Ohioans a day who have been 
thrown out of work since George Bush took his oath of office.
  The recent modest job creation numbers are welcome that we are seeing 
in some places around the country but too many of those jobs are low-
paid service jobs, too many of these jobs are seasonal work, too few of 
them have health and pension benefits. The men and women at Timken, the 
men and women who build things in America, want to know where they are 
going to find the good-paying jobs to send their kids to school, to 
feed their families and to pay their mortgages.
  The Timken Corporation, however, is doing just fine. Three weeks 
before announcing the Canton plant closure, Timken boasted in a press 
release of its record quarterly sales of $1.1 billion for the first 3 
months of this year. They also added that earnings per share were up 63 
percent over earnings per share 1

[[Page 10717]]

year ago. In a speech to Timken workers, the President bragged that 
worker productivity, productivity of these workers for the previous 
year, was up 10 percent. So we have worker productivity up 10 percent, 
we have corporate profits going up significantly, we have sales setting 
records, yet Timken laid off hundreds of workers, 1,300 workers, and 
closed down three plants.
  Last spring, the President when he visited Timken was also visiting 
Tim Timken, the chairman of this company. Mr. Timken is a Ranger, 
meaning he raised more than $200,000 for the Bush campaign in 2000. Mr. 
Timken also raised soon after that 2003 visit another $600,000 for an 
event for the 2004 campaign. In other words, President Bush's economic 
policies have worked just fine for Mr. Timken and his family but the 
Bush economic program has failed the families of 1,300 Timken workers.
  We can do better for America's workers. First of all we can extend 
unemployment benefits to 1 million Americans in this country who have 
lost jobs, who are looking for work, who have not found work and whose 
benefits have expired. Fifty thousand of those workers live in Ohio. 
Second, Congress can pass the bipartisan Crane-Rangel bill which 
instead of rewarding those companies that go overseas and do their 
manufacturing as the Timken company is doing, instead of rewarding them 
we give tax breaks, we give tax incentives, we reward those companies 
that stay in the United States and manufacture. If 100 percent of your 
manufacturing is in the U.S., you get 100 percent of the benefits. If 
10 percent of your manufacturing is in the U.S. and 90 percent is in 
China and Mexico and Indonesia, you only get 10 percent of the 
benefits. The third thing we need to do is quit using our Tax Code to 
send our jobs overseas. Too many workers have seen their tax dollars go 
to subsidize their companies who go overseas and cost American jobs. 
Something has got to change.

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