Posted on 08/15/2011 5:21:41 PM PDT by Kaslin
Politics: These days, what would a firm that outsourced 400,000 U.S. jobs be called? The answer: labor union. Monday's Canada-Colombia free-trade pact is its masterpiece.
Leo Gerard, the proudly Canadian president of the United Steelworkers Union, is one of many who ought to stand up and take a bow.
He and his fellow Big Labor union bosses loudly opposed the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement, using their political muscle to keep the already-negotiated deal on ice in Congress and the White House for nearly five years.
It's come at a massive cost to American workers' jobs.
Gerard's native land put its free trade agreement with Colombia into force Monday, meaning tariffs have been cut to zero on 80% of all goods Canadian companies sell to Colombia.
Meanwhile American companies continue to shell out tariffs of 15% to 50% more.
That means American market share on wheat, barley, chemicals and machine-tool parts — made of USWA steel — that once belonged to America will shift to Canada. Already U.S. market share is down — corn, for one, plunged 56% in 2009. It may go to zero.
Now hundreds of thousands of jobs will also be going to Canada, instead of the U.S.
How's that for an outsourcing accomplishment? By opposing free trade deals, Big Labor is shipping jobs abroad by the hundreds of thousands. It claims to represent the little guy, then kills jobs in the U.S.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
I don’t think it is possible to hate unions too much.
1. Failure to pass trade agreements with Panama, Korea, and Coumbia as discussed in this article.
2. Failure to allow drilling in ANWAR.
3. Closing the Gulf of Mexico to drilling.
4. Refusal to sell F-16s to Taiwan.
5. Enacting a plethora of regulations to strangle US businesses and jobs.
6. Obamacare.
7. Punishing Boeing for opening a plant in South Carolina.
8. Expanding government enormously, at the expense of the private sector.
9. Failure to approve the Keystone pipeline project.
Each one of these adds up to thousands of jobs. However, the knock on effect would add thousands and thousands more jobs. For example, selling F-16s to Taiwan would extend and expand production at Lockheed Martin. Those workers buy cars and houses and boats and campers with some of their wages. They shop at Walmart. They need banking services and they go to restaurants. But that's only a part of it. The workers at plants that make parts for the F-16s also buy goods and services with their wages. And they pay taxes. Then there are the workers engaged in providing all these guys with goods and services.
Take another example, the Keystone pipeline. Trans Canada wants to expand their pipeline system into the US midwest to be able to deliver more oil from the Athabasca tar sands. The pipeline would also swing through the Bakken shale deposits to pick up increased domestic US oil production. Obama is stalling on approving this project. It would create thousands of US jobs: fabricating the steel pipe, building earth moving and pipe laying equipment, installing the pipeline, refinery jobs. And on and on just like with Lockheed Martin. The US could secure a supply of energy for decades. If the pipeline is turned down, Trans Canada will simply build a pipeline across the Rockies to the Pacific and ship the oil to China. The US will end up buying more oil from Venezuela and OPEC.
And Obama claims all he thinks about is jobs? Maybe he should give his head a couple of shakes.
You know, if this thread had a more suitable headline, such as “OMG Free Trade We’re All Gonna’ DIE!!1!,” it would probably generate 100+ comments.
Gerard is one of Obama’s marxist political and economic advise buddies. Check out his database site at www.keywiki.org, search under his name.
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is the largest socialist organization in the US. It is one of two official U.S. affiliates of the Socialist International. It was formed in 1982 from a merger of the Michael Harrington led Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee and the smaller New American Movement.
Here’s a sampling:
DSA publishes a quarterly journal, Democratic Left.
David Dinkins, former New York mayor
Kurt Stand,former communist, convicted East German and Soviet spy ....LOL!!
Gloria Steinem, feminist, activist, writer ....No kidding.
John J.Sweeney,former AFL-CIO president
And a cast of thousands, including the cry baby in chief, I’m sure!
And yet the American union workers continue to support these union leaders and their political hacks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.