UAW president says free trade agreements are costly to U.S.workers

HAMBURG TOWNSHIP - United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said the country's free trade agreements are responsible for the loss of 1.8 million jobs to China and an annual trade deficit of $815 billion.

The loss of manufacturing jobs to China and other low wage countries has become a major presidential campaign issue, and Gettelfinger told a receptive crowd of more than 100 people at the 25th Annual Edwin B. Winans Dinner put on by the Livingston County Democratic Party last week that the trade agreements are anti-worker and anti-union.

"Look, we are not against trade; we are for fair trade, not free trade," he said."There is nothing wrong with trade, but what are we getting in return?"

Gettelfinger said the trade agreements are not being enforced because worker's rights are not being protected, environmental laws are not being followed and safety rules are also being routinely violated .He said the race to the bottom for the lowest wage is really the goal of the free trade agreements. He also said labor has never been involved in any trade talks.

"They don't want workers to have a voice when they talk about these trade agreements," he sad. "Labor is not at the table trade when these trade agreements are being worked out."

Gettelfinger said there have been 20 straight months of manufacturing job losses. As an example, he points to the situation with the trade imbalance with South Korea. South Korea exports 700,000 cars the United States annually, but the Big 3 automakers combined only export 6,500 cars to South Korea.

"Why would our government sit down and negotiate a trade agreement like that," Gettelfinger said. "They are stealing our jobs."

Gettelfinger also said labor unions and organized labor are under assault and are unfairly blamed for the loss of jobs, but unions are responsible for every worker right, from employer provided health care to the recent increase in the minimum wage.

"There is no other institution to give worker's equity and justice," he said. "When you walk in the door you are an at-will employee unless you are in a union.We are proud of who we are and what stand for."

Gettelfinger began is career in the UAW on the assembly line, and he said he is sick and tired of seeing stories in the media about greedy union members when the media ignores stories about CEO compensation. He said up until 1976, the average CEO made about 36 times more than the average worker. He said in 1993 that had increased by 131 times and BY 2005 CEOs were making 369 times more than the average worker.

"Not much makes my blood boil anymore, but when I see stories in the media about greedy union workers now that makes my blood boil," Gettelfinger said. "Where are the stories about that (CEO compensation) ? Why is that not on the front burner?"

Gettelfinger is an outspoken advocate for a national, universal single-payer health care system. He said the U.S. spends $2 trillion or 16 percent of its Gross Domestic Product every year on health care, but there are still 47 million Americans without health care coverage.

"Why shouldn't the people who come to my home to pick up the garbage have the same health care as a corporate executive; why not," he said. "Health care should be a right, not a privilege."

Gettelfinger negotiated the historic contracts with the big 3 in 2006 that made the UAW responsible for retiree health care, and he said that will both help the Big 3 compete and ensure retirees are protected

"I want to say to the retirees here tonight, you do don't have to worry abut your health care," he said.

Communist China set to invade U.S. shores in renewal of Cold War

The good news is when Chrysler rolls out its $7,000 cars made in Communist China by workers working for less than a $1 an hour it will actually be marked up to $10,000 after all the safety features required for U.S. roads are added in.

It appears the communists were not able to win the Cold War because they could not keep up with our defense spending and match our amount of nuclear missiles, so they are trying to win by exporting American jobs to China. According to the Detroit Free Press, Chrysler will begin importing the cars that are priced less than half of the lowest current Chrysler product in partnership with Chery Automobile Co. The company is owned by the local government of Wuhu, located in the southeastern province of Anhui.

It’s news like this that makes it clear why under President Bush’s watch we have lost more than 3 million manufacturing jobs. Bush has completely ignored the manufacturing sector to the point that the alleged new jobs being created are not making up for the lost manufacturing jobs in both quantity and quality. The current tax policies, unfair trade polices and lack of enforcement of trade polices by the current administration is making it impossible for U.S. automakers to compete globally, and – as the ownership of Chery illustrates - foreign governments are helping foreign auto companies compete by providing health care for employees for help with health care and even manipulating currency to make their cars cheaper and U.S. cars more expensive. U.S. car companies are not just competing against foreign car companies they are competing against foreign governments.

I fail to see how U.S. automakers can compete against a communist country - because that's exactly what they are doing - or how importing the cars here can be good for anyone. This administration continues to make it attractive for U.S. companies to offshore jobs, and there is no way we can compete against a country that pays workers less than a dollar an hour. We will never win a race to the bottom, and why would we want to?

Under free trade agreements, we should be exporting our products to sell in China, but the only thing we are exporting is our decent paying jobs. Not only is China not allowing open markets, but with some three-quarters of the population living in poverty how can they even afford to buy anything? China has unfettered and unrestricted access to U.S. markets. That’s despite the fact they compete with slave labor wages and production and wages and benefits manipulated and controlled by a Communist Chinese regime. The obvious question is why do we allow them unrestricted access to sell products made in China when they do not reciprocate?

It seems ironic that people like U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, is constantly speaking on his cable show and elsewhere about inferior products - especially auto parts - that are being manufactured in China that are exact look-alikes, complete with packaging and company name, that is costing U.S. manufactures as much as $250 billon a year in lost revenue, but we are now embracing them. In fact, Chery was also sued by GM Daewoo for copying that company's Chevrolet Spark. Why are we allowing this unfettered access without addressing the rip-off of American products, copyright infringement and patent infringement?

Then there is the obvious question of quality. We are getting products from China that lack the basic quality control procedures of products made in the U.S. to the point that it is endangering lives. Just last month more than 900,000 tubes of Chinese-made toothpaste containing diethylene glycol - a sweet, syrupy poison - were pulled off the shelves of U.S. stores.

Some Republicans have no problem with buying products from an enemy that just a few years ago we were calling our ideological enemy bent on destroying us. It was just some 20 years ago when former President and conservative hero Ronald Reagan called the second largest communist nation in the world an evil empire, but now we are buying cheap cars from the largest communist country because they can make them cheaper by paying workers dirt-cheap wages.

Some are saying there’s a double standard because the Democratic leadership is not speaking out against this like they did last fall when Republican Gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos, as head of Amway, invested more than $200 million in Communist China for building plants to manufacture the company's products. I think they should, but I don’t see how much effect the governor of a state and a state party chairman can have on federal trade policy.

It should also be pointed out that they were pointing out the lies of a political candidate during an election. DeVos was falsely claiming that investment was creating jobs in Michigan. If Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda ran for political office making the same untrue claim then Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer would be 100 percent correct in debunking that claim. Frankly, LaSorda should stick to managing the Dodgers.

DeVos also claimed that Chinese law says if you sell to the Chinese it must be built or manufactured in China, and that only those products made in China are sold in China. The first part is true, but Brewer presented proof that DeVos lied when he said those products made in China were not sold here. That begs the question: why don’t we tell the Chinese and Chrysler if you sell to Americans it must be built or manufactured in America like the Chinese do?