MARCH 4, 2011:NWLP
3/1/11
10:09 AM
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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
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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
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