USW Says Bush Record Makes Mockery of Cheney Harley Visit

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Jan. 6, 2006 -- The United Steelworkers union today took exception to the visit of Vice President Dick Cheney to the Harley- Davidson factory in Kansas City, pointing out that the Bush Administration has done far too little to help workers in the nation's manufacturing sector.

"Crediting Dick Cheney and this administration's policies with the success of Harley-Davidson - or any other American manufacturing plant - is like awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to China for its actions at Tien An Men Square," said David Foster, District 11 Director of the United Steelworkers, which represents workers at the Harley-Davidson plant visited by the vice president.

Over the past five years, the U.S. manufacturing base has shed good jobs at an alarming rate. In the first two years of the Bush presidency alone over 1.5 million manufacturing jobs were lost, according to an analysis by the AFL- CIO. Over 63,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in Missouri between 1998-2002. Employment in manufacturing fell to 14.3 million nationwide by March 2005, lower than it was in 1945.

At the same time, the U.S. trade deficit in goods has grown to approximately $1.78 billion a day.

The administration showed its colors at year's end when Bush turned his back on several thousand U.S. workers who make steel pipes, when he refused to place limits on Chinese-made steel pipe imports flooding the U.S. market. In October, the U.S. International Trade Commission found Chinese imports were a threat to domestic industry and jobs, and recommended that the president impose import limits.

"Cheney's appearance is especially galling a week after this administration refused to back up its own International Trade Commission ruling that China is dumping steel pipe products into the U.S., threatening the jobs of thousands of American steelworkers," Foster said.

For more information, contact: David Foster (612) 623-8045, or

Emil Ramirez (816) 836-1400