Re: Job loss and the race to the bottom.....

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

interesting. But I think it's a mistake to blame "free trade." Though "globalization" as currently practiced does involve a race -- or rather a creep -- to the bottom, lowering wages relative to productivity, the high exchange rate of the dollar quickens this process in the US. 

------------------------
Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Ballard [mailto:swillsqueal@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 9:37 PM
> To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [PEN-L] Job loss and the race to the bottom.....
> 
> 
> http://www.aflcio.org/aboutaflcio/magazine/0903_amjobs.cfm
> 
> Manufacturing job loss starts the downward spiral
> 
> The loss of good manufacturing jobs has ripped apart
> communities and permanently lowered living standards
> for families throughout the United States, including
> in Rockford, Ill., 70 miles from Chicago. The northern
> Illinois city is historically second only to Cleveland
> as a center for machine tooling, the making of tools
> used in machine manufacturing.
> 
> Machine tooling, which traditionally employs the most
> highly skilled manufacturing workers including members
> of the Machinists and UAW, is the bedrock of America's
> manufacturing industry.
> 
> But the bedrock is crumbling. The Rockford area lost
> more than 20 percent of its manufacturing jobs-about
> 10,000-between May 2000 and 2003, according to MBG
> Information Services President and Economist Charles
> McMillion's analysis of Department of Labor data....