Labor & Employment Law

Steelworkers Blast Blanche Lincoln?s Claim She Saved Jobs

By admin

Justin Nickels, AFSCME’s state coordinator, is working with the Arkansas AFL-CIO for a few weeks and reports on Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s misleading and downright dirty political ad against her Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln recently took out a TV ad attacking Lt. Gov. Bill Halter that was both a bit of dirty politics and more than quite a bit misleading. In the commercial, Lincoln, from my great state of Arkansas, claims she saved 1,700 jobs at the Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Texarkana.

But not according to the people who know best: The workers at Cooper Tire. According to the United Steelworkers (USW) Local 752L members, keeping Cooper Tire open costs workers $31 million worth of concessions?and her votes in support of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) have cost hundreds of thousands of workers their jobs.

Lincoln also voted to normalize trade relations with China, a move that caused the influx of Chinese tires in the first place.

As the Arkansas AFL CIO said:

If the senator had the foresight to support working families in Arkansas by voting against these trade bills then Arkansas families would not have to worry about their jobs being shipped overseas. The workers at the Cooper Tire plant know this and would appreciate more directness from the senator when she makes these claims.

Lincoln’s latest outrage follows her attack last week on working families and their unions.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on March 29, 2010 (boomark / email).