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.