Take Action Now to Protect U.S. Shipyards

The U.S House of Representatives and Senate sent strong warnings to the Department of Defense (DoD) over a plan to impose a “winner-take-all” bid process for the Navy’s next generation destroyer, the DD(X).

The current 2006 budget calls for the work to be split between Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula, MS and General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. The DoD wants to impose the “winner-take-all” bid system and award all DD(X) work to one shipyard.

The Senate passed a resolution by Senators Trent Lott (R-MS) and Susan Collins (R-ME) that says “it is ill-advised for the Department of Defense to pursue a winner-take-all strategy for the acquisition of destroyers under the next generation destroyer DD(X) program.” The resolution points out that having just one U.S. shipyard build the DD(X) will result in the loss of skilled workers and shipbuilding capacity should the U.S. need to increase production in the future.

In the House, the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus sent a strong letter to President Bush, saying that “any decision to pursue a winner-take-all strategy for DD(X) is unwarranted, for there is no justification for this proposed action.”

To send your own message to Congress to protect U.S. shipbuilding, go to the Action Alerts and Advocacy page of www.goiam.org and click on “Defend Our Shipyards From Attack.”

IAM Journal Portrays Hard Life
of Working Women in China

The Spring 2005 issue of the IAM Journal features a trio of alluring models sweeping down a fashion runway somewhere in China. In the pages that follow, the quarterly IAM magazine looks behind the glamorous image at the rampant exploitation that is part of everyday life for 337 million women working in China.

The cover story examines the grim working conditions for women who represent 48.5 percent of the total Chinese population and 45 percent of the nation’s workforce. Forced to live away from their families in company dormitories, many women regularly toil fourteen hours a day, six days a week, earning less than sixty dollars a month.

“Billions of exported products – toys to textiles, computers to cars, air conditioners to airplanes – depend on 337 million working women whose lives are far different than the China Dolls on this magazine’s cover,” said IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger.

The impact of this exploitation does not stop at China’s borders. According to the Economic Policy Institute, imports from China displaced 1.6 million U.S. jobs between 1989 and 2003. The growing exodus of high-tech jobs once thought to be reserved for highly industrialized nations now compounds the loss of traditional manufacturing jobs.

“Let’s understand that free trade with Communist China is not free,” said IAM President Buffenbarger in his introduction to the IAM Journal. “It comes at a very high price – a lower life expectancy for millions of Chinese workers and much lower lifetime earnings for millions of North Americans.”

Senate Reject Cuts in Social Security

In an important vote that reflects the shift in public sentiment away from the President’s plan to dismantle the Social Security system, fifty U.S. Senators voted in favor of a non-binding resolution calling on Congress to “reject any Social Security plan that requires deep benefit cuts or a massive increase in debt.”

Public support for the President’s privatization program continues to slip despite a massive public relations campaign that includes advisors from the notorious Swift Boat group that orchestrated attack ads on Sen. Kerry during last year’s presidential campaign. A new Washington Post/ABC poll shows “only 35 percent of Americans now saying they approve of his handling of the issue,” while “56 percent disapprove of his approach.”

In a related development, President Bush acknowledged during a recent press conference that private accounts will not resolve the issue of Social Security solvency. “Personal accounts do not solve the issue,” said Bush last week, later adding to the lexicon of confusing Bush quotes with, “I repeat, personal accounts do not permanently fix the solution.”

New Jersey Bill Would Prevent Outsourcing

Non-stop lobbying by New Jersey labor unions and union members combined to win passage of a bill that will require contractors doing business with the state to perform all work in the U.S. rather than allow work to be outsourced to foreign countries.

The bill is considered to be the first comprehensive law in the nation that responds to outsourcing and blocks the exodus of good-paying jobs. An exemption would allow work to be performed abroad only if there was no company in the U.S. that could do the work.

The resolution also calls for the creation of a seven-member Outsourcing and Offshoring Commission consisting of three legislators and two members each from the labor and business communities. The New Jersey commission will examine the impact of outsourcing and ways to reduce the flow of jobs abroad.

More than 31 state legislatures have introduced laws to control the outsourcing of state work to foreign countries. Only two states have passed measures into law: Tennessee, which gives preference to firms that use U.S. citizens and Illinois, which requires disclosure regarding contractors intentions to move work offshore.

DOL Grilled Over Wal-Mart Child Labor Deal

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao was on the defensive at a March 15 Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing where she was questioned about the unprecedented settlement that allowed Wal-Mart to review Labor Department statements about child labor law violations at the giant retailer.

In January, the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor reached a deal with Wal-Mart over multiple violations of child labor laws. Under pressure from Wal-Mart, the Labor Department withdrew its press releases detailing the $135,540 fine and other settlement details.

At last week’s hearing, Iowa Senator Tom Harkin questioned the Department of Labor’s (DOL) commitment to child labor issues asked Secretary Chao if it was typical for her department to grant a 15-day advance notice of future departmental investigations.

Secretary Chao claimed that the agreement was “consistent with past cases” but admitted that she was not initially aware that any settlement had been reached with Wal-Mart. The independent Office of the Inspector General within the DOL is evaluating the settlement.

Foreign Governments Finance U.S. Deficit

The U.S. trade deficit, which hit an all-time high of $666 billion in 2004, is increasingly being sustained by investments from foreign governments, according to an eye-opening report from the Economic Policy Institute. The report shows a bloc of Asian governments making 78.9 percent of all government purchases of U.S. assets in 2004.