Re: “Experts watch slow recovery” (TNT, 11-30).
The article showed that our state’s economic recovery still has a long way to go. If we really want to speed up our recovery, we should first fix our nation’s broken trade policies that allow foreign countries to illegally subsidize their industries and cheat workers in Washington state out of high-paying jobs.
We’re seeing this sad dynamic play out now in the Air Force’s competition to build a $35 billion fleet of refueling tankers. French-based aerospace company Airbus developed its tanker plane using $5 billion in European Union subsidies – subsidies that have been ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization.
If the Pentagon is able to take the right steps and discount these subsidies when making their decision, Boeing workers will have a fair chance at the more than 50,000 jobs the tanker contract will support across the country, including 11,000 jobs here in Washington.
Gaining these jobs will give our economic rebound a boost. Losing them will leave us mired in high unemployment. Times are already tough for local workers. We shouldn’t make them tougher by allowing unfair foreign competition to steal local jobs.
(Rose is secretary-treasurer of the Pierce County Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO.)
Patty when a candidate was trying to bring a major company including its calling center to Tacoma when Ebersole was mayor who did your UNION thugs support? Needless to say NO ONE that brought jobs to Tacoma. Go ask Ebersole what he did with this JOB information that would have hired 500+ people from an exporter.
Here’s a little reminder for overzealous union bosses: “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”
JB – here’s a better one. Don’t impoverish those you expect to buy your produces.