|
American Manufactures and
Workers Getting it “Socked” to Them
Dave Johnson, President
UFCW Textile & Garment Council
When asked to do a story for the Buy American Campaign newsletter about the
dilemma of the U.S. sock
industry, I of course, initially thought that the same can hold true for almost
every industry we have in The United States. And while I have spent a lifetime
working in organized labor, I have always recognized the parallel interest
between manufacturers we share a relationship with and the workers we represent.
After all, if they’re out of business, so are we.
Over the past three decades that I have worked in the Apparel/Textile industry,
I have witnessed consultants and certain business representatives continue to
influence management towards having a negative view of labor unions, while at
the same time, elements of organized labor continued to maintain adversarial
attitudes towards management. The net result has been, while many labor and
management in the United States have been isolating themselves from each other,
retailers and economist have carefully and politically been selling our leaders
on GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) with its various modifications,
as well as other trade agreements such as NAFTA (North American Free Trade
Agreement). And while all of this has been going on, the bottom line has been
the undermining of our own domestic manufacturers and workforces.
Today we find members of the U.S. sock industry through the American
Manufacturing Trade Action
Coalition (AMTAC) fighting for its very life and that of their employees against
the threat of cheap imports, mostly from China, due to the expiration of quota
limits taking effect January of 2005 as agreed to under GATT. Proponents to the
elimination of quotas and tariffs, base their support on what they feel is the
ultimate cost to consumers that can be eliminated when tariffs no longer exist
and a free world market is allowed to function without restraint.
Opponents on the other hand, like myself, feel that nothing in this world is
free as suggested in the term “Free Trade”, and that there is a price to be paid
for everything we do in our society. Unfortunately, the price in this case like
many others, will be the further loss of thousands more American manufacturing
jobs.
In an article recently written by Bruce Stokes of the National Journal (a
nonpartisan publication concerning
politics, policy and government), Mr. Stokes wrote “Most important, the now
seemingly inevitable displacement of the U.S. textile and apparel industry by
the Chinese should not be dismissed as simply the natural death of another
outdated industry. Fabric and clothing producers are merely the canaries in the
mine. Their experience should teach the United States important lessons about
the challenge that China poses for domestic makers of auto parts and machine
tools, and for other large portions of America’s rapidly dwindling manufacturing
sector.”
While the sock industry through AMTAC are petitioning for safeguards through the
Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) to approve the
special textile safeguard petition of the domestic sock industry against surging
Chinese sock imports, there are those forces working equally viligant within
large retailers and importers lobbying in the opposing direction. In their
letters to Secretary Evans & Powell, along with Trade Representative Zoellick
and Secretary of Labor Chao, AMTAC noted that imports of socks from China
increased from 5.8 million dozen pair in 2002, to 22 million dozen pair in 2003,
an annual growth rate of over 370%. Imposing the sock safeguard would limit
Chinese sock imports to an orderly 7 1/2% annual growth rate. Furthermore
explaining that their’s is a highly automated industry and the most vibrant
sector left within apparel manufacturing; it being a crucial part of the economy
and local tax base of communities in North Carolina, Alabama, Virginia,
Kentucky, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Carolina, Indiana, Vermont, Tennessee,
Pennsylvania, California and elsewhere.
Worth mentioning in this story I think, is the fact that much of this industry
is non-union. I bring up this point for only one reason. The effects of our
American trade politics affect everyone without discrimination. For far too many
years, we have heard those who say that greedy Unions are largely to blame for
jobs going offshore. When truly, I could say, what we have are business interest
in America that care more for profits that they for for people, even their own
employees. It’s really too easy to point the finger, without each and every one
of us as Americans accepting some responsibility. Everyone wants things faster
and cheaper regardless of the consequences (or price). Well, folks these are the
consequences.
If you talk to American manufacturers about why they outsource overseas, they
will tell you, it’s because the retailer (their customer) keeps pressuring them
on pricing points. Then if you go to a retailer and question why they don’t have
any “Made in USA” products, they will tell you that the public demands lower
prices and that they have to compete with discount stores like Wal-Mart, that
purchase over 50% of their products from China, and they say, that it’s because
they are ever diligent in reducing prices that allows consumers to keep billions
of dollars in their own pockets for other needs. It’s a vicious cycle that has a
lot of players in it with some truth to what each has to say. However, all the
time, our own jobs in this country continue to spiral downwards in wages,
benefits and for that matter even in existence, leaving everyone so busy passing
the buck (literally), that no one is apparently responsible. Here we have the
sock industry fighting for its life and that of thousands of American jobs,
often times in a setting of small communities that will soon find themselves
devastated. WHY?
Of sure, we might pay more for “Made in USA” socks, but what else is it that
we’re buying besides just a pair of socks? Could it be when we “Buy American”
that we are paying for a way of life that has been envied by the world? I think
so.
Perhaps the day will have to come, when as citizens we say that enough is enough
and take the time to write our legislators about the trade politics that are
negotiated. At the same time, as citizens, the day may have to come when we quit
looking to government to solve our problems and as consumers we decide to look a
little harder to find American made socks. After all, we as consumers really do
have the final say when we put our money on the counter, don’t we? Look for
American-made Wigwam® and ingenius® socks.
BUY AMERICA CAMPAIGN
115 Helton Ct., Suite B
Florence, Alabama 35630
PRST STD
U.S. POSTAGE
P A I D
PERMIT #98
FLORENCE, AL
B.A.C. Is On The Web! Go to www.bac-america.org
B.A.C. Is On The Web!
Go to
www.bac-america.org
Tell your Friends, Neighbors,
Co-Workers and Families.
If you have a web site, please link B.A.C. to it.
P.O. Box 7 • Killen, AL 35645
American Manufacturers
and Workers Getting it
“Socked” to Them |
