http://www.capemaycountyherald.com/article/20022-hershey-s-chocolate-moves-mexicoBy Jack Fichter
Fewer and fewer products are being manufactured in America. Now, add to the list Hershey Candy. The company is moving to Mexico. This press release from Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa sums it up:
In another blow to working families in the United States and Canada, the Hershey Company has announced that it will be closing multiple plants, cutting its workforce by 11.5 percent and moving jobs to a new plant in Monterey, Mexico.
This decision is yet another byproduct of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which, from its inception, has done more to erode the U.S. economy than perhaps any single piece of legislation in U.S. history.
Millions of jobs have left our nation for countries like Mexico and China where workers don’t have the rights and protections our workers enjoy in the U.S. Wages are low and employer power is high—a perfect storm in which big business prioritizes profit over worker safety and well-being.
The Hershey Company has always been synonymous with American tradition. A true homegrown success story, Hershey Park and the company facilities have been visited by millions of families that travel to enjoy the theme park and tour the factories.
I wonder what those families would think now if they knew that 900 of the 3,000 workers in the three plants in Hershey, Pa., would soon be without jobs? Or if they knew 575 workers in Oakdale, Calif. will be looking for new employment in January 2008? Will they still feel the same pride in this American company?
This is a company that was built on the backs of hardworking Americans—blue-collar, middle-class men and women who dedicated their lives to Hershey and are now being betrayed for the sake of a few extra dollars at the bottom of a balance sheet.
Over the last 13 years, NAFTA has destroyed the competitive edge American workers had benefited from for decades. Skilled and hardworking Americans find themselves losing out to cheap labor over the border and across the ocean.
Since 2000, corporations have shipped more than 525,000 white-collar jobs overseas, according to the AFL-CIO department of professional employees. Some estimates say up to 14 million middle-class jobs could be exported out of America in the next 10 years.
Accountants, software engineers, even X-ray technicians are losing their jobs as corporations look for low-wage workers in countries such as India and China.
At the same time, 3 million manufacturing jobs have been lost since George W. Bush took office, many of them because corporations have shipped them to countries such as Mexico and China, which is creating a booming manufacturing industry on the backs of its poorly-paid workers.
AFL-CIO notes the jobs being created in the U. S. often are low-wage jobs that don’t offer health coverage or ensure retirement security. Nearly one-quarter of the nation’s workers labor in jobs that generally pay less than the $8.85 hourly wage which our government said it takes to keep a family of four out of poverty. Sixty percent of such workers are women, and many are people of color.
As of 2003, the U.S. imported 96 percent of all the clothing that is purchased and 75 percent of all the toys sold in the U.S. are manufactured in other countries, according to the United Auto Workers union.
All this started when President Bill Clinton signed NAFTA promising “a million jobs in the first five years of its impact,” which never happened. President George H. W. Bush negotiated NAFTA, so unfortunately both Republicans and Democrats who owe their souls to corporate money have supported it.
A complete list of all the corporations that have sent manufacturing to Mexico does not seem to be available on the Web but a short list includes Levis, Wrangler, Black and Decker, Maytag, Black, La-Z-Boy, Honeywell, Phillips, Eastman-Kodak, Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Pillsbury, Carrier Air Conditioning, Lexmark, Whirlpool, Colgate, Zenith, Canon and Pratt & Whitney.
No matter who occupies the Oval Office next year, these jobs are gone from America.
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