Meet Rosie the riveter.
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For the Strength of Rosie the Riveter, Make It in America
China is on the verge of overtaking the U.S. in manufacturing output. And Americans know it.
Rosie the Riveter defiantly rolls up her blue work shirt to show off a brawny bicep. She’s a symbol of American strength.
She worked in a manufacturing job, one of millions that constructed the defense machine that won World War II for the Allies. She said, “We can do it.” And America did.
Now, however, shuttered U.S. factories and off-shored manufacturing are sapping American strength. The nation has lost more than 40,000 manufacturing plants and one-third of its manufacturing jobs, nearly six million, over the past dozen years. China is on the verge of overtaking the U.S. in manufacturing output. And Americans know it. Late in April, 58 percent of 1,000 likely voters told pollsters they believed America’s economy no longer led the world.
They also told pollsters they supported enacting a national manufacturing policy to promote resurgence of domestic production — a return to the days of a robust Rosie the Riveter and a country that could secure its independence with dynamic manufacturing capability.
Democrats in Congress heard that message. They’ve created a program called “Make It in America.” They plan to pass a series of bills to create an environment in which both Americans and American manufacturers make it. “We want everybody to make it in America,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said as she described the plan to 2,000 bloggers and progressive activists at Netroots Nation 2010 last week in Las Vegas.
After all the support America has given the financial sector – estimated to total more than $4 trillion – it’s time for Congress to invest in the productive sector, the one that creates jobs, real wealth and American power.
“We must stop the erosion of our manufacturing base, our industrial base, our technological base,” the speaker told Netroots Nation, “It is a national security issue to do so, if we had no other justification,” she said, adding that there are, of course, plenty of other reasons.
She said the strategy is to pass “one bill after another” supporting American manufacturing. The House started last week with two, one to ease American industries’ access to raw materials and parts and another to improve specialized workforce training.
In addition, Speaker Pelosi said, House leaders want to address currency manipulation – the deliberate undervaluing of currency to make a country’s exports artificially cheap and imports into that country artificially expensive. Currency manipulation by China, for example, is believed by both conservative and liberal economists to be adding as much as 40 cents to every dollar of the cost of U.S. products exported to China and discounting Chinese goods sold in the U.S. by 40 cents on every dollar.
“There is a strong interest in our caucus in holding China accountable for manipulation of currency. That would make a tremendous difference in our trade because currency manipulation is really a subsidy to their exports to America – an unfair advantage,” the Speaker said at Netroots Nation.
Other bills Speaker Pelosi hopes to pass soon include $5 billion in tax credits for domestic manufacturers that produce components for alternative energy and a requirement that foreign manufacturers keep at least one worker stationed in the U.S. so the company can be officially served with court papers. Also, there’s a bill by Illinois Congressman Daniel Lipinski that would require each U.S. president to produce a manufacturing strategy in the second year of office and to review progress annually.
The survey that prompted Democrats to create the “Make It in America” program was commissioned by the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) and conducted by Democratic pollster Mark Mellman and Republican pollster Whit Ayres. They found that likely voters believed creating manufacturing jobs was more important than reducing the federal deficit and more important than cutting government spending.
The survey also showed strong support for policies requiring the government to buy American-made goods. Similarly, it showed the Democrats, Independents and Republicans surveyed felt the quality of products manufactured in American exceeded those made in China, Japan, India and Germany.
Americans now even prefer U.S.-made cars: An Associated Press-GfK Poll in April showed 38 percent of Americans favor U.S. vehicles. Asian brands got 33 percent.
Chrysler takes advantage of that sentiment in its commercial for the new Grand Cherokee. The words are chilling:
“The things that make us American are the things we make,” it begins.
“This has always been a nation of builders, craftsmen, men and women for whom straight stitches and clean welds were matters of personal pride. They made the skyscrapers and the cotton gins, colt revolvers, Jeep 4-by-4s,” the ad continues.
“These things make us who we are,” the narrator says. Yes. The things Americans make, make the country strong.
To the sound of a sledge hammer pounding a railroad spike, the narrator goes on to describe the reborn Grand Cherokee, “This, our newest son, was imagined, drawn, craved, stamped, hewn and forged here, in America. It is well-made and it is designed to work. This was once a country that made things, beautiful things, and so it is again.”
Well, not quite. Chrysler may make a terrific Grand Cherokee in Michigan. But American manufacturing needs some help. And with unemployment stuck at 9.5 percent, so do the American people. “Make it in America” is that aid. The AAM poll showed 85 percent of those who said the U.S. had lost economic leadership believed America could regain it.
Americans believe we can still do it.
This article originally appeared on the United Steelworkers union website.
ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Leo Gerard is the president of the United Steelworkers International union, part of the AFL-CIO. Gerard, the second Canadian to lead the union, started working at Inco's nickel smelter in Sudbury, Ontario at age 18. For more information about Gerard, visit usw.org.
More information about Leo Gerard, United Steelworkers President
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Reader Comments
While I wholeheartedly agree with the title and main thrust of this article, it is too forgiving or unaware of the real scope and bipartisan participation in the destruction of our manufacturing sector.
“The nation has lost more than 40,000 manufacturing plants and one-third of its manufacturing jobs, nearly six million, over the past dozen years.”
The last dozen years cover less than half the period during which both parties passed legislation to encourage selling our jobs in a reverse auction process. I saw it starting in the mid 1980s and gather momentum until nearly all the major industrial employers were gone from my city, Rockford, IL. We had been a furniture manufacturing town, maker of top quality hardware and fasteners and a machine tool center.
My wife and I recently drove around town past 10 major factories for whom I had done graphics and advertising work over a period of more than forty years — all are empty and decaying.
Now, even my barber and dentist have been losing work due to the jobs their customers and patients lost. On my morning bike ride of about 5 miles I’ve have seen the number of houses for sale go from 8 to 14 since spring — several are vacant — was is up for auction.
“Democrats in Congress heard that message. They’ve created a program called “Make It in America.” They plan to pass a series of bills to create an environment in which both Americans and American manufacturers make it. “We want everybody to make it in America,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said as she described the plan to 2,000 bloggers and progressive activists at Netroots Nation 2010 last week in Las Vegas.”
All soothing words they know people want to hear, but like Obama’s slogans — not going to bring any “change we can believe in”. Those in congress are among those who bought us to the sorry situation and are consummate liars and actors. Nancy is one of the stars.
When NAFTA was about to make the national garage sale of jobs our official policy, the AFL/CIO told me I was foolish and essentially said, “You mind your business and we’ll mind ours.”
We need to overhaul our constitution to take back the runaway powers of congress. We need unions who take on the fight rather than delegate it to D.C. We need people to overthrow those who work for those “too big to fail”. We need representatives to be OUR lobbyists as the original founders intended and ban all those thousands of others who write the bills we oppose.
Posted by whattheheck on Jul 29, 2010 at 5:25 AM
I too agree, but have strong reservations that Mr. Gerard and the steelworkers are up to the task of turning things around. I have been involved in advancing the cause for working families in America for the last twenty-five years but I must say I have been disappointed more than once by the over the top rhetoric and ultimate cowtowing displayed by the Steelworkers and other Internationals. It appears to me that not one high ranking official from any international union has stepped up. Not one has strayed from the all to easy comfort zone. More than I care to mention have spouted pro labor and anti corporate rhetoric while addressing their respective memberships but when the time came for them to “walk the talk” they turned out to be nothing more than corporate lapdogs.
It has become far too easy and convenient for our international unions to justify and accommodate concessions simply because other represented locations are experiencing the same or worse. They seem to have bought the standard corporate line of global competition while continuing to allow unabated off-shoring of our good paying jobs. Unfortunately, the politics within our labor unions have become an almost unbearable burden which has hindered every aspect of representing the working class.
It disturbs me that I have to be so blunt because I am a local union officer, but unless organized labor rids itself of the old guard which has forsaken the people they supposedly represent, the middle class is as good as gone. What will evolve will be more militant and unfortunately, more desperate than any movement in the history of our country. Organized labor must dispense with the same old tired rhetoric and actually do something that invigorates and motivates their members.
Posted by Justice 22 on Jul 30, 2010 at 5:41 PM
Justice22,
I have never been a union member and at times found them to be a problem.
My grandfather was a coal miner before they were unionized so I realize the original need, but saw only the later excesses.
Once at a trade show when I was about 19, I was not allowed to plug an electrical cord into a light socket — a union employee had to do it. Another time while working at a Fortune 500 company, I had a grievance filed against me for carrying a small, light weight box to the shipping dept. I used two hands — not realizing if I’d used only one we would not have needed a union guy with a dolly.
I have always been curious whether the top union guys are as overpaid as the top corporate management. It now looks to me like they have more in common with CEOs than with real people.
Posted by whattheheck on Jul 31, 2010 at 7:18 AM
whattheheck,
Please don’t misunderstand, I am not saying unions are not needed. In fact, they are more essential to the well-being of our middle class than ever. That being said, unions must re-evaluate their internal structures which in many cases have been negatively impacted by grand egos and lack of accountability.
To your very important point of “union featherbedding” which you have given solid examples of, I will say that enlightened labor leaders know that productivity is a key element for job security. History has proven that too rich labor contracts and staffing mandates are unsustainable and only serve to hasten the decline of our manufacturing base. I believe “union featherbedding” is actually not an issue in today’s manufacturing environment. In fact, it seems the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction. Through relentless plant consolidations and non stop concessions forced on our union workers, employees are forced to do more tasks for less money.
While I will admit that labor unions had overextended some employers in previous years through lack of foresight, today’s world looks quite different. Corporate greed has corrupted every aspect of our way of life. Unions are demonized and faulted for mass layoffs and off-shoring of jobs. Where the labor movement has failed miserably is communicating the fact that executive compensation and corporate greed is the real motivation for plant closings, off-shoring of jobs and layoffs.
To your point of comparing union leaders to corporate executives, the only similarity I have found is they both deal in entirely too much bureaucracy. If you look at compensation, you will see no comparison. In fact, the UAW international union president’s annual salary is less than many companys’ lower to mid level managers salary for example. His salary is available to anyone who accesses the UAW constitution online.
It’s time for the labor movement to pick itself up by its bootstraps and begin to aggressively represent those who depend on them. We have such an opportunity with our current administration and I would really hate to see it go to waste.
Posted by Justice 22 on Jul 31, 2010 at 8:40 AM
Justice 22,
“Through relentless plant consolidations and non stop concessions forced on our union workers, employees are forced to do more tasks for less money.”
This is true in nearly all occupations today and certainly the pay ratio of management to worker are outrageous today. My son is a statistician/programmer and the two most recent before the hiring freeze were Ph.Ds doing what he (a BA) does. Clearly, both job quality and benefits are down for most workers and continue to fall in this environment.
Thanks for the info on union leaders’ pay.
As someone who was self-employed except for 3 years and have only my own savings and Social Security, I’ve been shocked at the high pensions some people are receiving and at such an early age. I find it excessive and resent them. Especially government workers getting taxpayer dollars.
Posted by whattheheck on Jul 31, 2010 at 10:19 AM
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