Letter Sent to Senator Rick Santorum to Help Defeat PNTR with China in the Senate
17 July 2000
Letter Sent to Senator Rick Santorum to Help Defeat PNTR with China in the Senate
CLEVELAND, July 17 Warren Davis, Director of Region 2, UAW
today sent the following letter to Pennsylvania's United States Senator Rick
Santorum requesting his support in defeating Permanent Normal Trade Relations
with China in the Senate vote coming up this week.
Already the first casualty of Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China
has occurred with the loss of 90 low paying jobs at Nestaway Corporation
located in Garfield Heights, Ohio and represented by UAW Local 70 in Region 2.
UAW Region 2 represents 6000 members in western Pennsylvania. Region 2
represents 80,000 members in eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania and West
Virginia.
Contact Warren Davis, Director, UAW Region 2 at his Pittsburgh Area Office
724-772-6060 for comment or further information.
A copy of the letter follows:
Senator Rick Santorum
United States Senate, PA
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Senator Santorum:
The first casualty of Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China has
already occurred, just after action by the House of Representatives, and in
expectation of passage of PNTR in the U.S. Senate.
Ninety low-paying jobs are leaving Ohio and heading for China. The
victims are the workers at Nestaway Corporation in Garfield Heights, Ohio.
They are mainly single parents with poor prospects for finding any job that
would pay a wage comparable to the $9 an hour they had been paid.
Nestaway Corporation has been under contract with the Rubbermaid
Corporation of Wooster, Ohio. It is losing its critical contract because
Rubbermaid claims it can no longer afford to buy Nestaway's sink strainers for
$1.79 apiece. It is pathetic that Rubbermaid can get away with its claim that
it cannot compete because they pay $1.79 for each delivered strainer. It is
obvious that Rubbermaid's cancellation of the Nestaway contract is not about
world competition. It is about naked greed.
Nestaway's story is about only one of the thousands of small American
companies which are confronted with an economic squeeze brought about by
unfair trade laws. In fact, hundreds of thousands of American jobs, including
thousands in Ohio, have been lost since Congress passed NAFTA. PNTR for China
will be the death knell for many small companies.
My question to you is, "For whom does the bell toll?"; because this is not
just about the jobs of Region 2 members of the UAW. This is about all of
American manufacturing. And it is about the debate in the Senate...and it is
about your vote. You have a real opportunity to help Congress redeem itself
in the eyes of the American people. You have a chance to demonstrate your own
genuine sensitivity to the issue of job loss. The loss of jobs is real, as
real as it is to the 90 workers at Nestaway. Please dispense with any canned
response about the alleged benefits. You cannot tell that to the people at
Nestaway.
There are many members of Congress who represent the same constituents you
do who have taken a stand for workers. I am asking you to join William
Goodling, John Murtha, William Coyne, Ron Klink, Mike Doyle, Frank Mascara,
Robert Brady, Chaka Fattah, Robert Borski, Paul Kanjorski and other members of
the Pennsylvania delegation, who have taken a strong stand on behalf of
protecting Pennsylvania's manufacturing jobs. I am asking you to join with
them in opposing PNTR, the China Trade Bill, this very week.
I am asking you to search your conscience about the needs of
Pennsylvania's manufacturing workers and their families. Consult with your
colleague Senator Arlen Spector and learn why he has taken a strong stand
against PNTR. I am convinced that once you are truly mindful of the needs of
the workers in Pennsylvania, as Senator Spector is, that through your efforts,
the PNTR bill, can be defeated in the Senate.
Before even more jobs of workers in Pennsylvania and Ohio go down the
drain, I appeal to you as a United States Senator from Pennsylvania to
consider the reality confronting your constituents before you cast a vote on
the PNTR issue. To some, 90 jobs may not appear to be an impressive number.
But the jobs at Nestaway are the life's blood to the women who struggle daily
to put food on the table for themselves and their children.
I will be placing a phone call to you personally, today. I want to speak
to you and ask you to oppose PNTR. I do not want to rely on the manner in
which an aide may interpret your position on an issue which is devastating the
lives of 90 people today and will devastate the lives of thousands more in
Pennsylvania.
I can be contacted in my Pittsburgh area office at 724-772-6060, at your
earliest instance. Let's talk today. There is so much on the line.
Sincerely,
Warren Davis
Director, Region 2, UAW