Related Articles

Nearly 20 years ago, the International Trade Commission had a similar case before it. Brought by the IBEW, the IUE, the Machinists, the Steelworkers and the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Department, the ITC decided after its investigation that the American television manufacturing industry had been "materially injured" by the systematic dumping of color picture tubes from Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Canada.

Both the ITC and the U.S. Commerce Department found that imports from those countries were being sold in the U.S. for as much as one-third below their fair market value. Following that ruling, the U.S. Customs Services began collecting cash deposits on each color picture tube imported from the countries, reflecting the difference between the fair market value and the lower prices charged by overseas manufacturers.

That action by the ITC represented the culmination of more than 10 years of efforts to stem the tide of unfairly traded color television imports. In 1985, approximately 12,000 workers were employed by the American color television manufacturing industry.

Chinas Industrial Rise:
A Growing Threat

More than ten years after the North American Free Trade Agreement took 700,000 American manufacturing jobs across the border, China has replaced Mexico as the profiteers preferred cheap labor industrial haven. As the most populous country in the world, Chinas endless supply of workers makes it the destination for multinational corporations who once produced here. Like NAFTA in 1993, jobs and industry have followed Americas normalization of trade with China in 2000.

Chinese manufacturing workers make 50 cents an hour, where in Mexico, they make around $2 hourly. In the United States, hourly workers are paid more than $6. Union members make much more. Chinawhere unions are illegalalso has an alarming record of human rights abuse against labor activists and others.

The uphill battle to save domestic manufacturing in the face of such competition is daunting. "A citizen in our country is never going to be able to compete with a Chinese worker with their standard of living," Local 2331s Blankenship said. "Thats what the global economy has done to us. Its dragging us down instead of pulling them up."

Americas trade deficit in 2002 represented the largest trade imbalance in history, totaling $435.2 billion. This means the United States imports far more than it sells overseas. The largest trade gap is with China, to the tune of $103.1 billion. China also tops the list of countries subject to anti-dumping investigations, according to the World Trade Commission. China is the largest producer of color televisions in the world. (Canada, which does not include China among its top trading partners, had a trade surplus of $4.1 billion Canadian in April.)

At stake is much more than a few million color televisions, International President Hill said. "We compromise American ideals of independence and self-reliance with global trade policies that give incentives to corporations to manufacture overseas and cover it up when the President takes a photo opportunity in a factory. We are sending mixed messages to our country and the rest of the world when we celebrate our workers, their productivity and ingenuity on one hand while effectively slipping them a pink slip on the other by giving foreign competitors unfair access to our market."

But in the past two years alone, 3,000 IBEW members have lost jobs in the industry due to increased competition.