Posted on 08/11/2003 1:46:08 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
At his Aug. 4 appearance in Kannapolis, Gov. Mike Easley showed up 20 minutes late, then talked for 30 minutes about how devoted he was to helping the newly unemployed Pillowtex workers.
He praised two Charlotte A-list executives, Mac Everett of Wachovia Corp. and Jim Hance of Bank of America Corp., for trying, unsuccessfully, to find a buyer for Pillowtex while protecting their banks' interests.
Then Easley dashed off without taking a question from workers or journalists.
Left in his wake were 6,500 former Pillowtex employees suddenly surrounded by glad-handing pols who, in reality, can deliver little more than photo ops and press releases.
Sens. John Edwards and Elizabeth Dole have made obligatory stops in Kannapolis. And U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes has worked the crowds.
They all promise help for the laid-off workers. On the larger issue of how a company with the remarkable brand appeal of Pillowtex can collapse, however, none have any real answers.
It's easy to blame free trade for this mess. It's easy because it is essentially true that manufacturing in the United States is dying -- a victim of trade policies that are pushing thousands of jobs every year overseas. Even now, Hayes says it's probably too late to stop changes that will make it even easier for China to dump more product here in 2005.
The fact that free-trade policies would encourage U.S. manufacturers to move jobs overseas or that low-wage competition would force some companies here out of business is not a sudden revelation.
Everyone from right-wingers Ross Perot, Roger Milliken, Pat Buchanan and Jesse Helms to Ralph Nader and left-wing unions predicted this disaster.
The shame is that so little is being done to prepare the U.S. work force for this transition. A national economic policy that dictates a shift to 21st century high-tech industries should include employees who will work in it.
Globalization of the economy has created obvious benefits. It's meant remarkable growth for Triangle technology firms and for Charlotte's financial industry.
But anyone who thinks those benefits reach all North Carolina workers need to get out of the office more. In a just world, the academics and think-tank wonks who pushed free trade would be swapping their tenure documents and government contracts for the unemployment insurance applications now flooding Cabarrus and Rowan counties.
Our leaders -- over the past decades, not months -- should have displayed either the courage to promote fair trade protecting the manufacturing base or showed far more zeal in assisting workers now bearing the brunt of globalization.
It's too bad Pillowtex workers didn't get to hear retiring U.S. Sen. Ernest Hollings's view of the trade crisis, which he offered the same day Easley blew in and out of town.
"Riding up here, I saw this state could care less," Hollings said. "I just saw (University of South) Carolina license plates, (Clemson) Tiger paw license plates, they just can't wait for the kick-offs here at the end of the month.
"They just don't worry about the 60,100 textile jobs alone we have lost since NAFTA. We always brag on BMW in Spartanburg County. Ten years ago we were down to 3.2% unemployment there, and now we're at 8.5% unemployment. And in the country this is endemic. In the country itself, we don't make anything any more.
"I had to make a talk on trade last week, and I looked it up and found out that at the end of World War II we had 40% of our work force in manufacturing. And now we're down to 10%. We've got 10% of the country working and producing, and we've got the other 90% talking and eating. That's all they're doing.
"And we're eliminating jobs -- hard manufacture, service, high-tech -- all except the press and the politicians. They don't import us. If they'd imported us, they'd get rid of us, too."
David Mildenberg is a Charlotte Business Journal staff writer. He can be reached at dmildenberg@bizjournals.com or (704) 973-1149.
But, in general, the protective system of our day is conservative, while the free trade system is destructive. It breaks up old nationalities and pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade.
~Karl Marx, "On the Question of Free Trade" - January 9, 1848
As the son of now deceased North Carolina textile mill worker, allow me to weigh in on this.
The original JP Stevens cotton mills came to the Carolinas in the forties, running from unions in New Jersey and other northern states. There was no NAFTA, however "free trade" did exist. In the early sixties the mills in Roanoke Rapids, NC, after serious agitation from union thugs from the north, unionized. (This was the mill made famous in the movie, Norma Rae)After ten years of working without a contract because the management refused to remove union dues from their paycheck, management lost in court, had to commence collecting for the union, and little by little, these mills closed. This has been going on for 40 years now, and to me it seems it has more to do with unions than free trade.
Most of these products are sold here, and the cost of moving plants, training costs etc. seriously reduce the positive effect of cheap labor.
If it weren't for the disproportionate power the unions have to cripple a manufacturing entity, these plants would still be in this country, IMHO.
Nationwide, only 15% of the manufacturing workforce is represented by organized labor.
In comparison, over 40% of government workers are unionized.
(Union affiliation of employed wage and salary workers by occupation and industry)
North Carolina is particularly notable for having only 4% of it's workforce organized...
far less than the national average of 16%
(Union affiliation of employed wage and salary workers by state)
With such low impact on the industry in the region, I fail to understand how your comment is relevant to the discussion.
Sums it up rather well . . .
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