Congress must take immediate steps to address the crisis in manufacturing.

Trade and Industrial Revitalization

We need measures that rectify the trade, dollar and tax policies that put American manufacturing workers at a competitive disadvantage in the global economy. We also need to return American manufacturing capacity to its former levels. This requires “highroad” industrial development policies—increased access to capital investment, technical assistance and workforce training incentives—that modernize and expand the nation’s manufacturing industries, while preserving and creating good manufacturing jobs. Key measures include:

• Fair trade policies that reduce the U.S. trade deficit, protect U.S. trade laws and require inclusion of enforceable workers’ rights and environmental standards in trade agreements.
• Revised tax laws that eliminate incentives for corporations to move production overseas and punish those that do; opposition to reform of the Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC) tax that would encourage shifting manufacturing jobs overseas; replacing FSC with tax incentives that help American manufacturers create U.S. jobs and help workers cope with retiree health care and pension costs.
• Legislation that penalizes companies that incorporate overseas to avoid taxes and denies government contracts to these companies.
• Strengthening the manufacturing base for national defense and homeland security through procurement reform, enhanced “Buy American” requirements, an updated assessment of critical defense manufacturing capabilities and limits to “offsets” that drain critical technology and good jobs.

Health Care Reform

Solving the health care crisis, for manufacturing in particular, will require infusions of new public dollars as well as effective cost-containment policies. We need to bring new public money into the system, ease cost and competitive pressures and preserve employersponsored health care plans. Key measures include:

• A Medicare prescription drug benefit that provides continuous, comprehensive coverage for all seniors, including those previously covered by employers; opposition to proposals that discriminate against retirees with existing coverage.
• Guarantees that existing adequately covered retirees will not lose their benefits.
• Subsidies to encourage employers to continue these benefits.

Labor Law Reform

Reforming and enforcing the nation’s labor laws are essential to addressing the manufacturing crisis, as well as for promoting good jobs for all American workers. We need:

• Stronger labor laws to prevent employer interference and suppression of workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively.
• A quicker and fairer process for determining union representation (including card-check recognition and employer neutrality).
• Opposition to proposals that weaken worker protections, such as “comp time,” which undermines the 40-hour workweek, or that prohibit workers from organizing through voluntary card-check recognition.
• Guarantees of meaningful collective bargaining rights and legal protections extended to all workers.