Posted on 07/30/2003 1:57:24 PM PDT by Cacophonous
Petition: China illegally dumping low-priced furniture into market
GALAX - The factory whistle blew in this factory town, but furniture workers ignored the end-of-break signal.
Instead, they lined up to sign a petition that could help save their jobs. And they had their employers' blessing.
Amid headboard pieces stacked for assembly and the scent of sanded wood, Reva Lowe waited Tuesday morning for her chance to wield a pen against the threat of Chinese imports.
Lowe said she has worked for Vaughan-Bassett Furniture for about 17 years. She said she supports the campaign by a coalition of domestic furniture manufacturers to bring regulatory scrutiny to bear on the pricing of imports of bedroom furniture from China.
"Because I want to keep my job," Lowe said. "There is no place else to go. And I've worked here so long, I feel like I'm part of it.
"I don't want to go to China to work," she said.
In mid-July, a group of 15 furniture companies calling itself the American Furniture Manufacturers Committee for Legal Trade announced plans to file a petition this fall with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission. The petition alleges China is illegally dumping wood bedroom furniture into the U.S. market at prices below what the furniture costs to produce. It asks for an investigation and related anti-dumping duties which, if imposed, would be paid by the U.S. importers of record.
The original group has grown to include 25 domestic manufacturers of furniture.
On Tuesday, three manufacturers based in Galax - Vaughan-Bassett Furniture, Vaughan Furniture and Webb Furniture - offered employees a chance to sign the anti-dumping petition. In sum, the companies operate 10 factories, with plants in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, and have about 3,500 employees.
Out of 3,305 workers on shift Tuesday, 3,229 - about 98 percent - signed the petition, according to the Committee for Legal Trade.
Floyd Patton, a furniture polisher who has worked about 30 years for Vaughan-Bassett, was among the 98 percent.
"If somebody doesn't do something, we're not going to have no jobs," Patton said.
Both Patton and Lowe said managers at Vaughan-Bassett Furniture did not pressure workers to sign the petition.
The three Galax-based furniture manufacturers all import some furniture from China. John Vaughan, chairman of Vaughan Furniture, said the company imported about 8 percent of its furniture last year from China and expects to import about 12 percent this year.
John Bassett, president and chief executive of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture, emphasized the Committee for Legal Trade's specific focus is bedroom furniture from China - which the group alleges is unfairly priced in the United States.
"We are not trying to stop all imports," Bassett said. "We are not trying to stop legal competition."
D.E. Ward is president of Webb Furniture, whose ownership is split evenly between Vaughan Furniture and Vaughan-Bassett.
"We'd just like to get a level playing field," Ward said. "We feel like everybody has to take a stand. Business after business is leaving the United States."
Vaughan said if the United States loses its manufacturing sector, the "country is going to be in dire straits." He added, "Every manufacturing job in America - that's what China wants."
A trade officer for the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Washington, D.C., said a colleague handling anti-dumping issues was out of the office Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.
Galax will suffer terribly if its furniture companies gradually fade away or suddenly close local factories, said Gladys Reed, a quality control worker for Vaughan-Bassett.
"If these furniture companies close, Galax is dead," Reed said.
Bassett said that even the prospect of duties imposed on bedroom furniture from China could affect decisions of furniture importers.
"I think we could see a change in the industry by late fall," he said.
Joe Dorn, a lawyer working for the Committee for Legal Trade, said research supports the committee's position that China's trade in bedroom furniture is illegal.
"Our study indicated that there is a strong case to be made that China is illegally dumping bedroom furniture into the U.S. market," Dorn said. "We have also found substantial data indicating that domestic producers of bedroom furniture have been injured by the illegal dumping from China."
Sen. Roscoe Reynolds, D-Henry County, was in Galax on Tuesday to support the committee's campaign. Reynolds cited textiles and furniture jobs already lost to foreign competition and the consequent "devastating effects on jobs" in Southside and Southwest Virginia.
"I've never seen a time when the average working person is as concerned about their future as they are right now," Reynolds said. "They feel almost like they've been betrayed by the federal government."
One lawyer said there is "substantial data" that supports the charge that the dumping has hurt domestic manufacturers.
No. It's absolute garbage. Unfortunately, alot of people can't see the quality difference or just don't care. They'd rather treat their furniture as just another disposable thing and just go as cheap as possible. As a response, the American manufacturers (IMHO)have been trying to compete by cutting quality - which just won't work.
There's a reason I build my own.
But even if the quality were the same, the Chinese would still be dumping, conducting predatory trade practices. Stil decidedly NOT "Free Trade" by anyone's definition. And the only way to stop it is to slap tariffs on it. Agree?
I really don't know the answer to what is happening in America. All I see is the fact that I can't find a job, and a lot of my neighbors can't find one either. It's not for lack of trying, and it's not for lack of skills or good work habits. If it weren't for my wife having a job at the local hospital, we'd be in deep doo-doo.
It sure seems that America should be able to sell things to other countries that sell to us, doncha' think? Shouldn't there be some kind of reciprocity?
Why can't Americans go to ...say... Mexico and build houses, hospitals, roads, or power plants? Their government won't let us?
I don't think that is an option.
I really don't have one, but let me relate an anecdote.
I was working as an electrician last year (before I got laid off), and noticed a "Kohler" cast iron bathtub sitting in the basement of the new house I was wiring. I admire quality plumbing fixtures like that, and so I peeked at the label.
That tub weighed over 500 lbs., and was made in China. I couldn't believe it. How can the Chinese make a beautiful tub like that one was, and ship it to the US, and sell it for less than it could be made here?
If I were to call up a trucking company and ask to ship it to the West coast, it would probably cost me close to $1000.
I know that most US foundries have been put out of business by stupid environmental regulations. That would be a good place to start.
Even so, I believe the Chinese government is subsidizing these things with the specific goal of putting American companies out of business. It's working.
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