'The lights are going off' Lost jobs in Rockford, Ill., underscore free trade issue

The Boston Globe ^ | 10/20/2003 | Mary Leonard

[riri]

ROCKFORD, Ill. -- On April 15, Ingersoll International Co., a manufacturing mainstay here for 112 years, told its 300 employees to stop work midshift because it was shutting down. The company, one of two in the nation that had produced drilling machines to build F-35 fighter jets, had recently lost a defense contract to a Spanish firm and had been staggered by fast-growing competition from Asia.

[riri]

ping

[finnman69]

"President Bush is requesting billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq, but I don't hear so much about rebuilding our economy and creating jobs here," Smith said. "I'm wondering what his focus is."

Guess this guy has not heard about the taxcuts and tax relief for buisness owners.

[maestro]

FYI.......ping!

:-(

[Clemenza]

I wish these "heartland populists" would read today's article in the journal about how factory jobs have declined WORLDWIDE due to technological advances and increased productivity. This has been the case in countries as diverse as India, Brazil and the USA. I would post it but don't have a subscription to the online journal.

Why all of this nostalgia for smokestack America anyway. My grandfather worked in a factory and did everything possible to insure that his kids would move up into the white collar world.

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

[ "I'm a free trader, but I'm also a fair trader. And I believe our manufacturing sector, for example, must be treated fairly in foreign markets," Bush said in a recent Cabinet meeting. ]

One can hope, but his Singapore/Chile trade deal was not fair (he added thousands of foreign visa jobs on his own).
And IMO his tax-cut is creating "trickle-OUT", not "trickle-down".

[RiflemanSharpe]

Why all of this nostalgia for smokestack America anyway. My grandfather worked in a factory and did everything possible to insure that his kids would move up into the white collar world.


The problem is that now we are wholesale exporting our white collar jobs to third world countries as well as the blue collar ones.

[RiflemanSharpe]

Free trade as it is run now and it destructive effect is a growing issue on the minds of many Americans. Americans are findingit increasingly harder to make in the middle class. They will look for someone to blame.

[Clemenza]

Exporting jobs is indeed a problem for R&D and accounting, although I think the latter will be difficult to totally outsource due to difficulties in compliance with US Accounting regulations. Manufacturing is different, however, in that jobs provided in the industrial sector are in decline all over the world due to the reasons cited above.

[finnman69]

A city of 150,000 people, it once prided itself as the industrial fastener capital of the world, molder of the Oscar, and inventor of the hand-cranked pencil sharpener.

Clearly this town has not moved forward witht he times if the PR reps there are still pushing the invention of the hand-cranked pencil sharpener.

[Tacis]

These are union jobs! What di you expect? The unions are trying to make these members as costly to private employers as government employees are to us taxpayers. We can't move public employees overseas (but, as their salaries, the cost of their benefits continue to rise rapidly and their productivity continues to drop, we may have to find some way), but private employers can.

Union extortion and industrial harmony that lasts to just the next outrageous demand will force many more union jobs to disappear.

[Ronzo]

Excellent post. Now, we just need to wait a few minutes for the usual batch of Freeper's who will (no doubt) compare drill presses to buggy whips...

The very sad truth of this economic "recovery" is that people are still losing their jobs, and many are losing them to overseas competition. Makes one wonder just how long this "recovery" is going to last...

For those who think it's only "blue collar" jobs going overseas, guess again. There are just as many white collar jobs (IT, services of all sorts, legal, engineering, etc...) that are going away permenantly as well. This is not good for American, and it is definately not good for Bush, whether or not he had anything to do with it (which he didn't...)

I would not be surprised to see a major backlash against "(no so)free trade" in the years to come, and the Republicans are already on the wrong side of that issue.

[Clemenza]

OK, then please explain to me why industrial employment is declining WORLDWIDE and not just in the US?

[Clemenza]

Luddite Ping!

[Clemenza]

Rockford is one of those towns permanently stuck in the 1950s and has suffered as a result. I have been there and it is quite depressing.

[Jim Cane]

I wish these "heartland populists" would read today's article in the journal about how factory jobs have declined WORLDWIDE due to technological advances and increased productivity. This has been the case in countries as diverse as India, Brazil and the USA. I would post it but don't have a subscription to the online journal.

Ironically, the F - 35 pilots flying these birds will be an anacronism as UAVs prove to be the more productive arial killing machines.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

When I was a little kid growing up in a small Iowa town, everyone was sure they would go to Rockford, IL to get a good job.

[harpseal]

Ping

On or off let me know.

I suppose if we need to increase fighter jet production we can just import machine tools from China. I am not angry about a Spanish firm getting this contract as they have been allies in our war recently but I do think this is an area we need to carefully examine for keeping an essential defense industry in the USA.

[NY.SS-Bar9]

My grandfather worked in a factory and did everything possible to insure that his kids would move up into the white collar world.

Exactly why manufacturing is important. It is one of the few avenues of sucess and advancement available to those without the means but willing to work hard. Right now, there are many people like your grandfather willing to work long hours to provide for their families, but unable to find anything but menial jobs with no future. The value added nature of manufactuing makes the compensation available higher than in the service sector.

[maestro]

Bump!!