Graphic Communicator photo by Susan Zachem

Pres. Brian Fletcher, left, and Vice Pres. Frank Mandarino, Toronto 100M, talk with GCIU Pres. George Tedeschi, right.

The Bush administration and its free trade supporters "just keep saying that we're no longer manufacturing things in the United States. Well, no great country can survive once they've lost their manufacturing base," GCIU Pres. George Tedeschi told delegates to the Canadian National Conference.

The hemorrhaging of U.S. and Canadian jobs to low-wage countries has to stop for the economy to grow again, Tedeschi said, because goods and services can't be bought by workers who don't have jobs.

According to the AFL-CIO, the United States has lost 2.6 million manufacturing jobs since July 2000. These jobs accounted for about 13 percent of the manufacturing workforce. Since March 2001, the AFL-CIO said, the job loss in manufacturing accounted for about 90 percent of total U.S. job loss.

Tedeschi blamed the failed economic policies of the Bush administration–including government incentives for employers to move U.S. jobs offshore and other trade practices and treaties–for the huge job losses in manufacturing.

"The trade deficit in the United States is phenomenal, to say the least," Tedeschi said. "We thought [the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico] was a problem and that all the jobs would end up going to Mexico. Mexicans can't even keep the jobs because it's too cheap for labor in some of the other countries around the world."

Tedeschi cited the example of China, which enjoys "most favored nation" trading status with the United States. According to the U.S. Commerce Department, the U.S. trade deficit–imports minus exports–totaled $486.6 billion between August 2002 and August 2003. Exports increased 3.0 percent during the period, while imports rose 8.6 percent. During the same period a year earlier, the deficit was $397.9 billion.

In August 2003, the Commerce Department reported, the total U.S. trade deficit was $39.2 billion. Setting a record, the August deficit with China was $11.7 billion, fueled by a record $13.7 billion in imports from China while exports remained about the same.

Tedeschi said that Bush "is just making it worse. . . . His deficit is skyrocketing, and we have to pay for it while he gives tax breaks to the rich, and the middle class gets diddlely squat."

Instead of squandering money on the already wealthy in a futile effort to stimulate the economy, Tedeschi said, the U.S. government should spend money on its infrastructure.

"You see bridges that need to be repaired, roads that need to be fixed, schools that need to be built," Tedeschi said. "What if they started giving health care with some of this money and started to rebuild our countries, creating good jobs? Those jobs would stimulate income because you can buy products. That's what is going to grow the economy in our countries."

While the U.S. manufacturing base has been hit hard, the major multinationals in the printing and publishing industry are just hanging on, Tedeschi said. And the GCIU has made a major commitment, with the help of the AFL-CIO and other union partners, to make the new strategies for organizing and bargaining work, he said.

"We're going to let them know we're out there," Tedeschi pledged. "We're going to let them know that this union is not a sleeping dog. This union will defend its membership. We will bloody them when they try to bloody us in negotiations by demanding things they don't need. It's just greed."