Ping for a job-loss root cause analysis. Another way to fight the battle since diplomacy/trade agreements seem to be politically impossible.
Disclaimer: Morely is an American, but I came across this piece in a Canadian Automation journal. I excerpted some rah rah Canada stuff at the end. I think the problem, and the advice, applies the US as well.
I think that his "not in my backyard" root cause is right on the money. Too many communities don't want manufacturing (smoke stack industries) around them. Clean air and clean water are more important than jobs. There is also a mentality of keeping out manufacturing because manufacturing pays higher wages, which means the local government and local businessmen (businesswomen) must also pay higher wages.
His special thanks to Jim Pinto, from India:
"Jim Pinto is an Electronics Engineer by background. He was born in India, lived in England for about 8 years, where he founded KPE Controls. He moved to the U.S. in 1968 and worked for Burroughs Corporation, in Pasadena, California. He then moved to San Diego, where he founded Action in 1972."
Here is one of his recent articles in favor of globalisation:
http://www.jimpinto.com/writings/globalcompetition.html "With fast developing quality skills and wage-rates that are just 10% of comparable western equivalents, China is poised to take over the world's manufacturing. Manufacturing workers outside of China are being displaced on a large scale; even Mexico is losing manufacturing jobs to China.
But that’s just half the story. China and India are poised to replace the world's knowledge workers as well. Both countries turn out hordes of engineering graduates each year from universities that are rapidly growing in size and quality. Pay ranges for engineers range from $3,000 to $7,000 a year. India has the advantage of a high-percentage of English-speaking scientists and engineers.
Software development in India has been booming in recent years. India now sells $5b software annually to the US, with 60% annual growth projected over the next decade. As product design becomes more network-centric and less location-dependent, competition against Western engineers is becoming fierce.
Many automation companies are moving rapidly to outsource product design and manufacturing to the Far East and software to India. Honeywell, GE, Rockwell, Invensys and many others are generating significant cost reductions through manufacturing in China and software development in India. In a global environment, this is indeed a good business decision for most companies. However, with significantly higher pay scales, it does mean that manufacturing and design engineers in US, Canada and Europe are under a severe disadvantage. Budgets are measured directly against offshore alternatives and WIDESPREAD LAYOFFS are a direct result."