Preserve One Of The Best Traditions In America—Jobs @ by Robert E. Swift (NAPSA)—With corporate America having to resort to downsizing, we should pay special attention to one particular headline to ensure it doesn’t get crowded out amongall the other layoff announcements. “Textile Apparel Continue to Lose Jobs,” says Women’s Wear Daily, a lead- ing publication for the industry. While the world watches with morbid fascination over the deeply injured technology sector, textiles, apparel and other manufactured goods are years into a form of recession that seems to go unno- ticed. As hundreds of thousandsof manufacturing jobs are siphoned off from the United States, the employment ranks of Third World countries swell. A recent article in The New York Times noted that 11 states in America, on a statistical basis are already in recession. Places such as North Carolina, among those listed, have lost so many manufacturing positions to Mexico and elsewhere, that the very viability of some towns dependent upon the existence of a factory, is threatened. Nineteen thousand textile and apparel workers were thrown out of their jobs in February, according to the Department of Labor. And 371,000 factory jobs overall were eliminated since mid-year in the sector. Yet a close look at the performance of this industry raises questions about the reasons for all this layoff activity, especially if one were to go back to the beginning of the year, when the economy was floating along on the technology bubble. The current downturn, while cer- tainly a factor these days, is not Our Federal government also makes it easier for these companies to go abroad with their manufacturing needs through initiatives such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization. NAFTA breaks down all trade barriers for countries on this continent—most notably Mexico, which benefits the most from this measure by supplying cheap labor by the thousands who wind up replacing American jobholders. And the WTO is about to let in China, thus granting this country a more favorable trading status with us and whose enormous workforce would then be an even greater factor than now in assuming manufacturing assignments previously carried out in the U.S. This is a good time for the current Administration to take a reflective pause on new initiatives that follow the same path as NAFTAand similar measures, as well as a review of those in force. Caribbean nations, sub-Saharan African countries, Andean countries in South America, Vietnam, Thailand and many others are vying with us for our own jobs. And today, in an economy that is slowing and is markedly influenced by consumer confidence, we must not infect that index negatively by surrendering some of our most valuable middle-income jobs for the sake of hoped-for diplomatic gains. Until such time as the government sees this logic, we as indi- viduals can act. The Made in U.S.A. label is our weapon to do so. Standing behind every label are American workers whose jobs remain an integral part of our economy; whose jobs have not the main culprit in driving jobs been shipped to Mexico or over- Rather, it’s governmentpolicy, ing to our tax base andpartof the from our shores. which clears the way for Third World countries to invade our market, along with the willing- ness of certain companies to abandon the working standards of our nation in favor of cheap labor offerings abroad. Enhanced profits are tempting, and many companies succumb. seas. They are instead contribut- manufacturing traditions of the United States. And this is a tradition worth preserving. Look for it, because it stands for all of the U.S. Robert E. Swift is executive director of the Crafted with Pride in U.S.A. Council, headquartered in New York City.
