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AFL-CIO launches national ‘Bring Jobs Home’ campaign

The following is crossposted from AFL-CIO Now:


In the past decade, 50,000 manufacturing sites closed and 6 million American jobs were lost because of outsourcing. Today, the AFL-CIO union movement launches the first of several nationwide Bring Jobs Home events, with an action near Master Lock’s flagship factory in Milwaukee, Wis., which has been producing the iconic padlocks since 1921.

Last year, under a new contract between UAW Local 469 and Master Lock, the company brought jobs back from China — a move union members at Master Lock and around the country would like to see become a trend in American manufacturing.

Text JOBS to 235246 to get info and action alerts to help bring America’s jobs home.

But in Allentown, Pa., today, workers and union and community activists will protest outside a T-Mobile call center, one of seven the company is closing to ship the 3,300 call-center jobs overseas.

The upcoming mobilizations will highlight the Bring Jobs Home Act, legislation introduced by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) in the Senate (S. 2884) and by Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) in the House (H.R. 5542).

The legislation would eliminate tax breaks allowing companies to deduct expenses associated with moving operations overseas, while still encouraging them to assist displaced workers. It also would provide a tax credit to corporations that bring jobs back to the United States.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the United States must develop a strategic jobs plan through measures like the Bring the Jobs Home Act, fair trade policies, curtailing currency manipulation and closing tax loopholes that allow U.S. corporations to shelter overseas profits.

Every major industrial country has a strategic plan to create and keep good jobs. It’s time for us to follow suit. We need a real plan that lives up to our patriotic ideals—a plan to put our people back to work and end the tax breaks and flawed trade policies that encourage rampant offshoring.

In the Allentown action today, workers will rally in support of legislation in the U.S. House that would bar companies that send call center jobs overseas from receiving federal grants and tax breaks.

T-Mobile received $14.2 million in local and state subsidies in exchange for promises of employment and economic development for opening four of the centers it’s now closing.

The U.S. Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act would also require companies to let you know where your call was being directed, you would have the option to be transferred back to call centers in the United States. Find out more here.

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FIND OUT HOW TO JOIN TOGETHER with your co-workers to negotiate for better wages, benefits, and a voice at work. Or go ahead and contact a union organizer today!