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MARCH 4, 2011:NWLP 3/1/11 10:09 AM Page 7 Mr. President: Americans can’t afford another job-killing trade deal U.S. President Barack Obama vis- ited Intel’s Ronler Acres complex in Hillsboro Feb. 18. Outside, several dozen labor rights activists held picket signs to remind Obama of his 2008 campaign pledges to renegotiate NAFTA and put a halt to NAFTA-style trade treaties like the one with Korea that President George W. Bush had ne- gotiated. Since entering office, Obama has not renegotiated NAFTA. And he has said he will send the Korea treaty to Congress for approval. Obama flew into the Hillsboro air- port by helicopter convoy and didn’t see the protesters, because his motorcade entered the industrial campus by a dif- ferent gate. But trade was on his mind. The president was visiting Ronler Acres to announce his appointment of Intel CEO Paul Otellini to a “Council on Jobs and Competitiveness,” and to de- liver the message that education is what will make the U.S. more competitive in the global economy. “If we want to make sure Intel doesn’t have to look overseas for skilled, trained workers, then we’ve got to invest in our people — in our schools, in our colleges, in our children,” Obama said. “We can’t win the future if we lose the race to edu- cate our children. Can’t do it.” Protesting outside, Arthur Stamoulis didn’t think much of the president’s ar- guments. “There are plenty of folks with world-class educations who cannot find a job in the U.S. tech sector,” said Sta- moulis, director of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign. One of them, protest- ing alongside Stamoulis, was Mitch Besser, a software engineer with a mas- ters degree and two decades of experi- ence in the field. Besser was a software engineer at IGT in Corvallis until the company shut its doors last year on over 50 employees, moving most of the work to China. Besser and his cowork- ers spent their final months training their Chinese replacements. “No one’s going to speak against better education,” Stamoulis said. “But what the country really needs is jobs, and what the president is putting out there is trade policy that makes it easier for companies to offshore jobs.” Intel, too, has outsourced. Its work- ers have qualified 18 times over the years for federally-funded Trade Act benefits — retraining, relocation and extended unemployment compensation for the victims of trade-related layoffs. But more than other U.S. tech firms, Intel has invested in manufacturing in the United States. Intel CEO Paul Otellini told the president that three- fourths of the company’s manufactur- ing is done in the United States. Obama praised Intel and its founder Andy Grove for that commitment. He then proposed a set of ideas for keeping companies like Intel in America. “In a world that is more competitive than ever before, it’s our job to make sure that America is the best place on Earth to do business,” Obama said. Obama said that’s why he’s proposing “lowering the corporate tax rate,” “elim- inating unnecessary regulations,” and getting the federal government’s fiscal house in order with a five-year spend- ing freeze. “That's a freeze that will bring our annual domestic spending to its lowest share of the economy since Eisenhower was President.” Ironically, those proposals directly contradict what Grove, the Intel founder and CEO until 2005, suggested in a provocative essay in Business Week last July. Grove said Asian economies suc- ceeded in large part because of their governments were involved in the econ- omy and targeted the growth of manu- Ben Basom, Bruce Dennis, and Mitch Besser send a message to President Obama during his recent visit to Intel’s campus in Hillsboro asking him not to sign the Korea Free Trade agreement, and to renegotiate NAFTA. (Photo by Douglas Yarrow courtesy of Oregon Fair Trade Campaign.) facturing. The U.S., by contrast, seems to have forgotten that manufacturing is crucial to a country’s economic future, Grove said. When American companies discovered that they could have their manufacturing and even engineering done more cheaply overseas, Grove wrote, the American job machine began sputtering. Today, 166,000 Americans are employed in manufacturing in the computer industry, fewer than in 1975, while in Asia, computer manufacturing employs 1.5 million factory workers, engineers, and managers. To turn this around, Grove didn’t call for lower corporate taxes, gutted regu- lations, or cuts in federal spending. He proposed levying an extra tax on the product of offshored labor, and loaning the money raised to companies that want to scale up their American opera- tions. “If the result is a trade war,” Grove wrote, “treat it like other wars — fight to win. If what I'm suggesting sounds protectionist, so be it.” Labor leaders attend Obama Intel visit More than a dozen Oregon labor leaders attended President Barack Obama’s Feb. 18 “winning the future” speech at Intel Corp. in Hillsboro. Obama toured Intel’s Ronler Acres campus and met with a handful of mid- dle school and high school math and science students before speaking to some 350 invited guests, which in- cluded Intel workers, politicians, and other dignitaries. Obama focused his remarks prima- rily on education, but he also talked about new investments, innovation, and American manufacturing. Among the labor leaders in atten- dance were Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain; Oregon State Build- ing Trades Council Executive Secretary John Mohlis; Oregon AFSCME Coun- cil 75 Executive Director Ken Allen; Northwest Oregon Labor Council Ex- ecutive Secretary-Treasurer Bob Tack- ett; Plumbers and Fitters Local 290 Business Manager John Endicott; IBEW Local 48 Business Manager Clif Davis; International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 8 President Jeff Smith; Oregon School Employees Association Executive Director Steven Araujo and President Bonnie Luisi; Dave Tischer, business manager of La- borers Local 320; Dick Schwarz, exec- utive director of American Federation of Teachers-Oregon; and Kelly Bach of the Oregon State Fire Fighters Council. Call 503-288-3311 Subscribe Today! Receive 24 issues of the latest labor news and views from Oregon and Southwest Washington. RATES: $13.75 a year for union members Special union group rate of 38 cents per issue (based on 24 issues) on orders of 25 or more Mail to: Northwest Labor Press P.O. Box 13150 Portland, OR 97213 Oregonians want to work Oregon Wants to Work, a new group for unemployed workers, held its first meeting in Portland Feb. 16. The group is one of a handful around the country created with grants from the national AFL-CIO. About 60 participants attended the meeting, recruited by AFL-CIO-affiliated unions and the AFL-CIO’s door-to-door canvass group Working America. It took place at the Portland Metro Workforce Center on Northeast Killingsworth. At the meeting pictured above, unemployed or underemployed workers were asked what they want, what resources they need, and how the group can help them. The next meeting will be March 23 at a location to be announced. Visit www.oregon wantstowork.com for details. MARCH 4, 2011 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS Name/Union Affiliation Address City State Zip PAGE 7
