Manufacturing Employment

Tom Lehman TLEHMAN at lor.net
Wed Sep 1 19:36:08 PDT 1999


AUGUST 31, 02:57 EDT

Ways To Stem Employment Losses Eyed

By KEVIN GALVIN

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Clinton administration is looking for

ways to stem employment losses among the nation's

manufacturers, who have lost nearly half a million jobs over the

last 18 months despite the strong economy.

``The president and vice president have been committed to

putting a specific focus on any part of the economy that has not

shared in the strong economic times,'' said Gene Sperling, director

of the National Economic Council.

The administration is working with economists and labor leaders

to come up with proposals the president can make in his next

State of the Union address in January.

``Our goal in the task force is to take a broad-based look at

everything from export policies to tax policies,'' Sperling said in a

recent interview. Worker training is also under scrutiny.

Labor is a key Democratic party constituency, one that Vice

President Al Gore is counting on to support his 2000 presidential

campaign. The administration also wants to involve

manufacturers in the process.

But some business leaders are not convinced there is a problem.

They note that while manufacturing employment is down,

productivity is on the rise.

``The focus of the task force should be to investigate ways to

sustain manufacturing's decade-long resurgence, not formulate a

centrally planned national industrial policy or attempt to fix a

nonexistent problem,'' said Paul Huard, a vice president of the

National Association of Manufacturers.

But the AFL-CIO, in a report to the administration, said the

manufacturing sector ``is in crisis, having lost 491,000 jobs since

March 1998. Little has been done to assist manufacturing

companies in coping.''

Sperling agreed that there have been ``significant losses'' in

manufacturing over the last year and a half. However, he said the

sector lost as many as 2 million jobs in the decade before

President Clinton took office.

The sector gained 800,000 back during the first five years of his

administration, thanks in part to federal support for shipyards.

He and labor analysts agree that the Asian financial crisis and

subsequent monetary devaluations around the globe are largely

to blame for the U.S. job losses.

Labor and business leaders both would like to see greater

incentives for manufacturers to invest in retraining workers.

But some of labor's suggested solutions are unlikely to win

administration support, such as devaluing the dollar and urging

the Federal Reserve not to raise interest rates.

``It has long been our policy that we are for a strong dollar and

not using it as an instrument of trade policy,'' Sperling said.

Other labor proposals include renegotiating the North American

Free Trade Agreement to increase worker protections, making it

easier to invest pension funds in pro-union businesses, and

cutting foreign tax credits.

The administration has committed to resisting any weakening of

worker protections in the upcoming round of World Trade

Organization talks and enforcing such safeguards in other trade

agreements.



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