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Labor leader: Unfair trade policies zapping manufacturing jobs in Iowa

Locked out American Crystal Sugar workers in Mason City... some were replaced by scabs
Locked out American Crystal Sugar workers in Mason City… some were replaced by scabs
Letter to the Editor from John Herrig, President Iowa State Council of the Machinists –

Fifteen years ago, there were more than 250,000 manufacturing jobs in Iowa, which still pay a significant wage premium for middle-skill workers without a college degree. Today, the number of manufacturing jobs here is closer to 214,000, and there are a lot more of us working at places like Walmart.

If you think those manufacturing jobs were zapped by robots or simply the victims of a globalized world, I have some magic beans for sale. There’s a big reason these jobs were lost, and it’s called unfair trade policies.

Right now, some in Washington are lining up to pass President Obama’s big trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). But there’s a lot wrong with it. There’s no rule in it on currency manipulation, for one, even though many TPP governments have histories of devaluing their currencies to get over on the competition.

America’s trade deficit with the TPP countries was more than $260 billion last year. If we sign a deal that lets foreign governments continue to cheat, that number will go up and so will the number of lost manufacturing jobs. Washington, don’t trade our jobs away!

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