Statement of Larry Cohen President, Communications Workers of America- The "TRADE Act of 2008"
" In our nation corporate management is hollowing out our economic capacity. Our good jobs in manufacturing are disappearing.The manufacturing deficit alone is $500 billion - that's twice the size of our bill for OPEC oil. Manufacturers producing in China annually send us $256 billion more in goods than we send them. That's the equivalent of having exported 2.2 million jobs between 1997 and 2006. Since China became a member of the WTO in 2001, we've seen a steady loss of manufacturing jobs. Those goods are produced by Chinese workers who earn between 49 and 98 cents an hour, plus 30 percent of that paltry wage in benefits, according to Supply Chain Digest.
Think about the implications of a total trade deficit of more than $700 billion dollars. The US has lost more than 3 million well-paid, middle-class jobs since 2001. In addition, the offshoring of service, technical and professional jobs has expanded dramatically.
Download entire statement of Larry Cohen President CWA in PDF format.
