CINCINNATI (TDB) -- There really is no doubt about it. Ohio jobs have moved overseas -- thousands to China. By one count, some 66,100 Ohio jobs had been shifted to China by 2007. And Republican John Kasich was dead wrong to claim in a gubernatorial debate against Ted Strickland last night that the jobs haven't disappeared. Kasich said, "We haven't lost jobs to China."
Workers who made Eljer plumbing fixtures in Salem, Ohio would be surprised to learn their manufacturing jobs didn't go to China.
People who made Etch A Sketch, the toy that draws on a screen using two knobs, and let's you erase it and start all over again, saw their life's work leave its small town Ohio home after 40 years. CBS News reported: "To save labor and production costs, Ohio Art Company is closing its Bryan, Ohio plant and moving production to China. The company announced its decision last month. Thirty workers are affected by the move - a lot for a town of 9,000 people. The Ohio employees made their last Etch A Sketches on Friday, three days before Christmas." The new plant that replaced the operation in Bryan, Ohio (in NW Ohio) is in Shenzen, China. By the way, Bryan is in Williams County, which nearly has the state's worst unemployment rate. Almost 14% of the county's workers are jobless.
And here's Malachi Mixon, chairman of Invacare Corp., near Cleveland. Kasich is on Invacare's board of directors. The company moved Ohio jobs to China, a fact that Mixon confirmed in a Jan. 31, 2008 inveterview with The Plain Dealer:
"Q: How difficult was the decision to move production to China?Invacare CEO Mixon: 'It wasn't difficult because it's about survival. [and] We realized we simply couldn't compete from America. You can take virtually any product made in Cleveland, make it in China, ship it back here and pay the freight for probably about 25 percent lower cost.' Invacare CEO Mixon said his Ohio labor costs were about $14 an hour; "And China, 50 cents."
UPDATE 3:09 PM -- Data published earlier this year by Policy Matters Ohio, a Cleveland think tank that is largely supported by labor, shows 10 companies in Ohio shifted production to China between May 2009 and May 2010. All told, there were 1,294 Ohio jobs lost. Kasich said there were none. Policy Matters Ohio gathered its data by analyzing records compiled by the U.S. Labor Department under the Trade Adjustment Act. Here's some of what the think tank said in its July report:
". . . by far, the largest number of Ohio jobs that have been shifted abroad and certified under the trade assistance program have been going to Mexico [4,668 jobs]. Each of the three largest certifications involving production shifts -- Ford Motor Co.'s Cleveland cast plant, Wal-Mart's eyeglass plant in Lockbourne and Avon's cosmetics plant in Springale (near Cincinnati) -- saw production go to Mexico. The vast bulk of the jobs shifted to Mexico, as with China, are manufacturing jobs."
Workers who made Eljer plumbing fixtures in Salem, Ohio would be surprised to learn their manufacturing jobs didn't go to China.
People who made Etch A Sketch, the toy that draws on a screen using two knobs, and let's you erase it and start all over again, saw their life's work leave its small town Ohio home after 40 years. CBS News reported: "To save labor and production costs, Ohio Art Company is closing its Bryan, Ohio plant and moving production to China. The company announced its decision last month. Thirty workers are affected by the move - a lot for a town of 9,000 people. The Ohio employees made their last Etch A Sketches on Friday, three days before Christmas." The new plant that replaced the operation in Bryan, Ohio (in NW Ohio) is in Shenzen, China. By the way, Bryan is in Williams County, which nearly has the state's worst unemployment rate. Almost 14% of the county's workers are jobless.
And here's Malachi Mixon, chairman of Invacare Corp., near Cleveland. Kasich is on Invacare's board of directors. The company moved Ohio jobs to China, a fact that Mixon confirmed in a Jan. 31, 2008 inveterview with The Plain Dealer:
"Q: How difficult was the decision to move production to China?Invacare CEO Mixon: 'It wasn't difficult because it's about survival. [and] We realized we simply couldn't compete from America. You can take virtually any product made in Cleveland, make it in China, ship it back here and pay the freight for probably about 25 percent lower cost.' Invacare CEO Mixon said his Ohio labor costs were about $14 an hour; "And China, 50 cents."
UPDATE 3:09 PM -- Data published earlier this year by Policy Matters Ohio, a Cleveland think tank that is largely supported by labor, shows 10 companies in Ohio shifted production to China between May 2009 and May 2010. All told, there were 1,294 Ohio jobs lost. Kasich said there were none. Policy Matters Ohio gathered its data by analyzing records compiled by the U.S. Labor Department under the Trade Adjustment Act. Here's some of what the think tank said in its July report:
". . . by far, the largest number of Ohio jobs that have been shifted abroad and certified under the trade assistance program have been going to Mexico [4,668 jobs]. Each of the three largest certifications involving production shifts -- Ford Motor Co.'s Cleveland cast plant, Wal-Mart's eyeglass plant in Lockbourne and Avon's cosmetics plant in Springale (near Cincinnati) -- saw production go to Mexico. The vast bulk of the jobs shifted to Mexico, as with China, are manufacturing jobs."
Is there any one out there that can bring our jobs back?
ReplyDeleteGreat question.
ReplyDelete