In Toledo, Promises Of Change Ring Hollow

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Washington Post

By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 24, 2008; Page A01

TOLEDO -- The Ford plant in nearby Maumee, where workers stamped out automobile fenders and dash panels, will close this year. Johnson Controls, which for years made seats for the iconic Jeeps that are assembled here, recently lost that contract to a firm in India. And American Standard is closing its century-old plumbing fixtures plant, eliminating the remaining 165 manufacturing jobs that paid as much as $19 an hour.

It is a common story throughout Ohio, which has lost more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000. "Manufacturing is getting its head handed to it around here," said Thomas J. Joseph, business manager of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 50, which covers northwest Ohio.

It is also a story the two Democratic presidential candidates are promising to change. As Ohio's pivotal March 4 primary approaches, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton have each called for significant infrastructure investment, development of alternative energy and other "green-collar" jobs, while promising to toughen environmental and labor standards that accompany free trade deals.

Those ideas are welcome here in heavily unionized and heavily Democratic northwest Ohio, but at the same time, no one seems to believe they go far enough to reverse the powerful tide of globalization that many blame for the constant manufacturing job losses.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/23/AR2008022302164.html?sub=AR

[IndyOp]

1. They don't go far enough so we'll have to keep pushing them before & after the election.

Keep the faith Omaha Steve -- I keep my faith in the people.

:hi:

[maseman]

2. You know something

Many of us live in Ohio, Michigan, etc. which have been so badly hurt by the loss of manufacturing jobs. Yes, it rings hollow when politicians come in and promise all of these "fixes." Bottom line they have been hearing it for years. Bush, Clinton, etc.

It is tough to think a politician will change anything once elected. I see where this article comes from and agree with it.

[IndyOp]

3. I see where the article comes from and I agree to some extent...

As Howard Zinn says, citizens get election madness and think that casting a vote is going to "change things" -- so after they vote, they go home and wait and then are frustrated and angry when things don't change.

The change we need to be: We vote and then we hound people at all levels of government to change the trade treaties and the tax loopholes that ship our jobs overseas and to pass public campaign financing and deal with the climate crisis.

Despair is not an option, at least not a moral option.

What do we need to do? How are we going to accomplish it?

[stox]

4. Ride the politicians for change

I see the same here in Illinois. The only way the politicians will change is if you ride them everyday, everynight. Remind them that they work for you, always, Sooner or later, they will get the point. Change takes time, but in the long run, it is inevitable.

[barb162]

6. Remind them that they work for you?

Come on. They just work for you when they're getting elected and then they tell you anything. Look where they're getting their campaign financing: the corporations pushing for more globalizing. Ask yourself why the candidates aren't talking about getting rid of the "free" trade deals that are destroying the jobs on this country.

[barb162]

5. They'll change nothing because they don't get it or they ignore it

They have to get rid of the free trade deals and not just make some minor adjustments to them. But the corporate sponsors and lobbyists where the candidates get their money aren't going to allow that to happen.

[noonwitch]

7. Except that things in Michigan were going well under Clinton

Detroit's crime rate dropped, the city had a lot of investments made that are still paying off (casinos, stadia, the Campus Martius building that replaced the Hudsons building, etc.). Clinton had programs that helped funnel money into poor areas in the midwest-the empowerment zone money, and he gave cities and communities money to beef up their police departments.

[ReformedChris]

8. Depressing Article that nails how many union households have suffered under free trade..

Infastructure Development can only do so much. Only rolling back these free trade agreements and severely taxing/punishing outsourcing companies can stem the tide in states such as Ohio. It is amazing to me how the Repukes can even be competitive in a state that suffers under their policies like Ohio.

[CanonRay]

9. Why can't we change the tax structure

so that corporations doing manufacturing overseas are taxed much more heavily than those doing manufacturing here. Then raise the tariffs on those goods brought in so that the price accounts for the lower wages overseas. That double whammy should bring the jobs back, and screw globalization. It's a corporate scam.