Special Industry Report: Manufacturing

More than 3 million manufacturing jobs have been lost since January 2001, the result of government trade policies that encourage overseas production and give tax breaks to companies that move operations offshore.

The U.S. trade deficit — at more than $700 billion per year — is at an all time high as production of new technologies and innovations that once were produced in the United States are moved to China and Southeast Asia.

GE's "environmentally friendly" light bulb is just the latest example. The IUE-CWA members who make lighting products have been directed by management to pledge to buy the new Made-In-China bulbs, putting their own jobs in jeopardy since GE refuses to produce the new bulb in the U.S.

CWAers at the Alcatel Lucent facility in western Massachusetts, the former Merrimack Valley plant that once employed 11,000, have been told that the union-represented workforce of 250 must come up with $6.6 million in concessions to keep the plant open. And IUE-CWA members at Delphi face downsizing and continued attacks on their jobs.

To stop this loss of quality manufacturing jobs, CWA is calling for fair trade policies that provide protections and opportunity for workers, not investors. We're looking to block expansion of visa programs that enable companies to replace U.S. workers with lower paid overseas workers and to stop tax breaks for companies that move production offshore.  And CWA and the AFL-CIO are pressing for a 25 percent value added tariff on imported goods to reduce the trade deficit.