Posted on 08/25/2003 2:05:47 PM PDT by snopercod
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- This year's highly publicized job losses in North Carolina manufacturing, including the Pillowtex bankruptcy, could mean trouble next year for President Bush in a region that was a stronghold in 2000.
Bush won more than 56 percent of the vote in both North Carolina and South Carolina in 2000. But his strong support of free trade has turned some against him in the South, where U.S. trade policies are blamed for the loss of jobs in textiles and other manufacturing sectors.
Andy Warlick, chief executive officer of Parkdale Mills in Gaston County, said he doubts he will repeat his 2000 vote for Bush next year.
"He made a lot of promises and he hasn't delivered on any of them," Warlick said. "I've had some firsthand experience of him sending down trade and commerce officials, but they're just photo ops. It's empty rhetoric."
Fred Reese, the president of Western N.C. Industries, an employers' association, said executives are beginning to raise their voices against Bush and are planning education and voter drives.
"We're seeing a new dynamic where the executives and employees are both beginning to see a real threat to their interests. You're going to see people who traditionally voted Republican switch over," Reese predicted.
The hard feelings were on display days after Pillowtex's July 30 bankruptcy filing, when Republican U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes walked into a Kannapolis auditorium to meet with former workers.
"Thanks for sending the jobs overseas, Robin!" shouted Brenda Miller, a longtime worker at the textile giant's Salisbury plant.
In December 2001 Hayes -- who is an heir to the Cannon family textile fortune -- cast the tie-breaking vote to give Bush the authority to negotiate "fast-track" trade agreements, trade treaties that Congress must vote up or down with no amendments.
At the time, Hayes said he won promises from the Bush administration that it would more strictly enforce existing trade agreements and pressure foreign countries to open their markets to U.S. textiles.
"Are we pleased with the way they responded? Absolutely," Hayes said. "Are we satisfied with where we are? Absolutely not."
Jobs in many industries have fled overseas since 1993, when Congress passed the Clinton-backed North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. About half the textile and apparel jobs that existed in 1994 are gone.
Since Bush took office in January 2001, it is estimated North Carolina and South Carolina have lost more than 180,000 manufacturing jobs.
And even more textile jobs could be out the door once quotas on Chinese imports expire at the end of next year.
Republican U.S. Rep. Cass Ballenger voted for NAFTA and fast-track, and has seen his 10th District lose nearly 40,000 jobs, primarily in the textile and furniture industries.
"Certainly, there's a political cost to any controversial vote no matter which side you take," he said. "People are casting stones, but we're trying to pick them up and build something."
Democratic U.S. Sen. John Edwards voted against fast-track in 2002 after voting for an earlier version. In 2000 he voted for permanent normal trade relations with China.
Recently, though, while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, Edwards has attacked Bush's trade policies and called for fairer trade measures.
Robert Neal, vice president of the local chapter of the Pillowtex workers' union, said Hayes has worked to try to ease the impact of job losses in his district.
"Though he (Hayes) voted for fast-track, he is really concerned about the workers and their conditions in the state of North Carolina," Neal said.
Not everyone feels that way.
Reese is organizing 1,500 manufacturing companies across North Carolina in an effort to leverage what he calls a new voting bloc.
In South Carolina, voter drives are planned for the first time at Milliken & Co., which has about 30 plants in the state. Mount Vernon Mills of Greenville, S.C., is forming a political action committee.
The company's president Roger Chastain, a one-time Bush voter, doesn't expect to support the president or Jim DeMint, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Ernest Hollings.
"We're basically liquidating our whole middle class, polarizing people on the two extremes, have and have-nots," Chastain said of the manufacturing job losses. "We'll be a Third World country."
I know the argument about not being my brother's keeper.
Sometimes you have to think about what is good for America in the long run instead of what is good for you right now.
What if American soldiers get a better offer from another country? Hey, it's free trade.
Is this a bad time to mention that I've been "between jobs" for a year, next week? I'm 3 mortgage payments from living on the street. Savings gone.
Yeah. I'm doing lots better than in the previous 30 years of full employment...
Now THAT's a campaign slogan for Bush! But can they at least have some cake?
(Rasies hand) Here sir!
You seem to be under the impression these morons would care. They repeatedly say they'd rather be with those hippies than "The Man" (that greedy CEO!).
Then the 2nd Amendment wasn't properly and Constitutionally ratified, either.
You SURE you want to go with this argument, or would you prefer to apply the Supreme Court's longstanding doctrine that ratification is a POLITICAL (not LEGAL) matter between the several states and the Congress?
BTW, not ONE state--hell, not even ONE legislator from any of the states--raised any objection to the 16th Amendment being declared ratified at the time.
Not ONE.
Maybe every legislator in every state at the time was a complete idiot.
Or maybe your interpretation of the matter is wrong.
Unbelievable. I bet you complain all the time about politicians who pander and promise handouts to people too.
Include bonuses and that works for me. Write it up and I'll sign it. =;^)
You are in the small minority.
1 year without a job? Something tells me I could at least find a McDonald's or restaurant near you that has a job opening.
Now let us all be civil. madd_dawg was the first to use the "Free Traitor" Tokantamish you were teh second and unless you count references to the term without trying to apply it to anyone and deploring its use Rudeby1 is number three I think or it ccould be you Texas_Dawg. do find on the term in thius thread and you will see the who used what exactly where. may we please be more civil ad stick to issues without calling each otehr socialists and traitors off the top.
I freely admit to this in teh past but lets move on and deal with issues regarding our economy.
I gave up on Bush, I don't like his pandering to foreign interests at the expense of America.
You were responding to my point about export taxes being illegal under the US Constitution.
I do not support tariffs on exports.
You managed to sound like you did.
Besides, would that be an export fee? I don't think those are also called tariffs. Course you might know more than that I regarding the exact phrasiology.
Let's get something straight: Government taking money at gunpoint = "tax." Call it a "tariff" or a "fee" all you want...it's a "tax."
Only in the Clintonized America are they called "contributions" or other silly euphemisms.
Unions. Who said we need unions? They're history.
Unless, of course, you arrange to subsidize them--as tariffs are intended to do.
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