US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke at the National Energy Summit

US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke speaks with CNBC's Becky Quick live from the Council on Competitiveness' National Energy Summit & International Dialogue, September 24, in Washington D.C.

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[allbowdown384]

@JohnRhysMusician Macy's is a northern company, and Nordstrom is still a large company and a good opponent to Macy's. Costco is non-union, and that's good as there NEED to be some non unionized jobs.

[JohnRhysMusician]

@allbowdown384 Boeing does still operate most of its manufacturing in WA, but it is slowly declining. Nordstrom is no where near the size of Macy's Department Stores or Federated Department Stores. Costco is non-union.

[JohnRhysMusician]

@allbowdown384 Unfortunately WA hasn't done well with manufacturing. Microsoft and Amazon are both tech companies, and tech companies are non-union and are able to operate in high cost/tax environments because of their inflated revenues. Starbucks is also non-union in every state because it operates on an employment platform similar to Walmart.

[allbowdown384]

@JohnRhysMusician If Washington was so bad, we wouldn't have Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, or Haggen operating out of here. We have a strong employer base with these companies and still do with Boeing, who happen to own the largest building in the world here, supporting the majority of Snohomish county workers on their own. Can't throw out Costco either... or Macy's biggest rival.. Nordstrom. Both Blue and Red states have proven to be healthy for business. WA is symbolic enough to assure this.

[JohnRhysMusician]

@allbowdown384 Corporate welfare is not the way. There aren't even close to being as many Fortune 500 companies in Washington as there are in Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, etc. The South is creaming us in the blue states. Plus think about this again with Boeing. The State of IL didn't give any tax incentives to Boeing, but they still made the move here from Washington. Washington is a generally tax friendly environment, far friendlier than Illinois, but that is not enough.

[allbowdown384]

@JohnRhysMusician I agree that Unions can go too far and they do it a lot. There's give and take in every situation. And Georgia (formerly 2.13 per hour until this year) along with Kansas (formerly 2.65 minimum wage till this year) were just allowed to go under the federal minimum. Really, Washington wasn't a bad state to do business in or we wouldn't have so many large companies based out of here. Our incentives help offset worker wages.

[JohnRhysMusician]

@allbowdown384 They don't pay less than minimum wage, they generally pay less per hour (e.g. GM paying $60-70 hour in Michigan vs. Mercedes $25-30 hour in Alabama), but they provide comparable health benefits. The main problem is the legacy costs associated with unionized workers that drives out businesses from forced union states. In right-to-work states companies negotiate more reasonable wages, health benefits, and retirement benefits associated with the skill level and demand for the worker.

[allbowdown384]

@JohnRhysMusician Because businesses can only be "successful" a.k.a. plaster their walls with the extra money.. by basing themselves out of areas deprived of proper social stimuli. Especially states like Kansas and Georgia that apparently can pay less than the national minimum wage to their workers. All Locke did in our state was create a balance between businesses and their workers.

[JohnRhysMusician]

Ask Secretary Locke why all manufacturing is leaving Washington because of labor costs?