 It's excused Berg Boney Doyle Graf excuse will be tardy Manny Montemay or moody Perez Rainflesh Stefan is excused Ben Akron Vander wheelie is excused Wongaman Warner is here Wenninger We have a quorum On that I will ask for approval of the minutes of our September 15, 2003 meeting I have a motion and a second for approval of the minutes from our previous meeting. Is there any discussion? Hearing none all those in favor signify by saying aye Aye Chair votes aye Motion passes Minutes stand approved This evening I'd like to thank everyone for their attendance Addressing the committee of the whole tonight is Leah Merriman Leah is the Green Bay area contact person And member of Save American Manufacturing She is also a board member of United We Stand America Wisconsin Incorporated Attending with Leah this evening is the president of Save American Manufacturing Kathy Schult As well as the president of United We Stand America Wisconsin Incorporated Gerald Miller Mr. Miller was instrumental in bringing this issue to the city council And has been the main contact in getting this set up And I thank you for that Gerald Ms. Merriman if you would step up to the microphone please I can help all of you more fully understand how important this issue is to so many people in the Sheboygan area I'm here tonight to talk to you about the Save American Manufacturing resolution Well I hope all of you got a chance to read it Well it's another day Another $1.4 billion in the hole Today we imported $1.4 billion more than we shipped out In the last couple of years there's been a recession Many people believe that this was due to the terrorist attacks or the war in Iraq or the corporate scandals I'm here tonight to tell you that these are not the problem The Constitution in the United States gave Congress the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations In 1994 we entered an organization called the World Trade Organization Which handed a lot of power that Congress had to regulate commerce to a body of unelected officials Meeting behind closed doors A few years later China received most favored nation trade status with the United States And made them eligible to enter the WTO With these two steps by Congress have put our economy into a recession that we will not soon meaning fully recover from Here's the fact that you may find compelling but not surprising if you shop at Walmart Last year our trade deficit totaled $103 billion with China The widest gap between any two nations in history This year we are on pace to hit $130 billion trade deficit What does this translate into? Well you're all in the city council and are having a hard time figuring out where you're going to come up with the money to the cuts to shared revenue Just think for a minute In the last couple of years we have lost 80,000 manufacturing jobs Envision for a moment Lambo Field Now envision it empty This is how many jobs in most of them very fair paying jobs we've lost in the last two and a half years Think back to your budget and then think about the plant closings And think about how many taxes these factories were paying Think about the wages that the people that were paying income taxes were earning And then see what kind of deficit we have as a state right now This is why we have a state budget crunch at present Why are utilities going up? Factories moved away and the burden is redistributed on the rest of us In our state one in five people that are working are employed in manufacturing That figure not only includes the people in hard hats that have the company logo It counts for the electricians, engineers and maintenance people that are working to keep the factory in shape Now there are people that argue that free trade brings down prices and improves standards of living in other countries Next time you go to discount shopping look at the label of the product that you want If it's made in China you can bet that the people that made whatever you're looking at are going to receive 10 cents an hour for the rest of their lives I know a manufacturer that went over to China to see what it would cost to open up manufacturing operations there One of the questions that he posed was on labor rates The Chinese man told him that he could guarantee in the contract that the labor rate would remain the same for 15 years The Chinese not to mention other lower cost countries can manufacture a finished product for less than we can buy our raw materials for This is not fair trade and the multi-national corporations know this If they weren't going to pull in massive profits from a move halfway across the map why would they take such a risk? Henry Ford back in the 20s raised his rages to the workers saying that he wanted them to be able to afford to buy the stuff they were making Cars Well because we want to save people money when they go to the store we have replaced the jobs at Ford with Walmart jobs Maybe just me but I don't recall the moment when the American people proclaimed their preference for an economy driven by Walmart to one driven by Ford Now Ford is even stating that their goal is to outsource 10 billion dollars a year overseas There are only a few things in this economy that create wealth They are mining agriculture and manufacturing and all other jobs redistribute and consume wealth I could list many companies just in Sheboygan that have laid people off for a planning to this year There's Richardson brothers furniture you got Volwoth, Kohler, Cargo malt, Optenburg ironworks and list goes on throughout your area What jobs are we replacing these with? We are replacing them with low paying service jobs My husband works pizza delivery right now in Green Bay and he's an electrician because he can't find a job in his field He was offered an electrical job just a few months ago but he would have had to take a six dollar an hour pay cut And insurance would have accounted for entire weeks paycheck I want to talk about national security and manufacturing As of now we have two semiconductor manufacturers left in this country Let's say we get into another conflict where we need bonds But these semiconductors were to leave to Asia and they didn't agree with the conflict we were in Would we expect them to make our bomb equipment? How shall we defend ourselves? Will we be buying our guns from China? Should we be attacked? Many people are blaming China for the problems we are currently facing They are citing their currency devaluation which makes their goods here look 40% less expensive And their non-existent regulations and their labor rate and the cheapness of their raw materials We must not lose sight of where the blame belongs here folks The blame must go on our legislators that voted yes on these agreements China is looking for how to destroy us and they are also looking at how they are going to accomplish their recovery after many years of recession How are they doing this? With the power that our legislators abuse they have put big American corporations first instead of Americans first I want to talk about the resolution now We want these resolutions passed statewide to help the congressmen and senators that make these decisions Know where we stand as a community on this issue I've spoken with Tom Petri along with the other SAM members on this issue and his sentiments do not echo ours You have a copy of his letter that he sent to one of the constituents in Sheboygan about this And it doesn't resemble in any way what Feingold wrote back to us The handout that I gave you was a letter to Jerry Miller over here This Sheboygan resident so you know you're getting the right story here If you read it Mr. Petri takes no responsibility for the problems we're facing Also that other article that I handed you says he blames China for the problem But really it's our trade policy that's the problem not China China is looking out for their best interest and what's going to help their economy recover They don't care about us Our legislators have to start caring about us as a community Okay, if you read it Mr. Petri doesn't remember He talks about the Singapore Free Trade Agreement and how he voted for it But there were 200 high-tech components that were listed in the Singapore agreement That as long as the items were shipped through the Singapore port They would have no tax or duty applied no matter what country they were shipped from They could have come from China or Malaysia And if we had tariffs imposed on those items They wouldn't have had anything imposed on them as long as they went through Singapore Also there have been factories that have closed their doors in the United States that have moved to Chile Because of the Chile Free Trade Agreement that he defends voting yes on You received a handout of Mr. Petri's voting record if you look at it You'll see that he voted yes on seven agreements that Sam is linking to job losses in this country Senator Feingold has been an opponent of free trade agreements as long as he has represented Wisconsin as a senator We're making a difference though Mr. Cole has supported most favored nations as with China and other agreements that have put us in this situation Mr. Cole has been made aware by Sam that these agreements have put us where we are And on the latest two agreements that are on your handout Singapore and Chile he voted no We are re-educating our legislators on this economy one by one Our goal is to get these resolutions passed all over Wisconsin and let them know That we want our jobs to remain in the United States, Wisconsin and Sheboygan We citizens do not regulate foreign commerce as I mentioned earlier Congress does We need to let them know what is happening and that we're paying attention Next election we need to remind them that our job may that their job may be next If they do not protect and defend our interests here at home And it's in everyone's best interest to have a decent paying job You want to say something? No, okay Well, anybody have any questions? Thank you, Leah We'll open the floor to questions from the council Alderman Montemar Thank you Thank you for talking with us I understand a lot more now than I did ten minutes ago Thank you very much Thank you Oh, yeah, I did have one question You mentioned 80,000 jobs over five years in manufacturing No, two and a half Two and a half years 80,000 jobs Just in Wisconsin? Yes Okay Clarifies that Council, any further questions? Alderman Doyle Thank you, Your Honor I found that interesting But the point is I don't think that we want to be used by every special interest Group Clearly our job is to govern Sheboygan and not free trade And other issues like that And I don't want Sheboygan's Common Council to become like Madison's Where we have a pronouncement on every issue So while I thank her for the presentation I don't think that we should be dealing with these kind of things I do want to mention that Sam is a grassroots organization We are not lobbyists We're just people that want people to realize what's happening here So that they take that into consideration And it is affecting your local economies all over the place I mean, every time you lose a job I mean, what's happening is like in Green Bay We just lost 215 jobs at paper converting up there Our housing market is going to go down I talked to a builder today She said that they're not getting orders The subcontractors from other companies are calling her Wondering if they have any work This is affecting every fiber of our economy right now Because as people lose their decent paying jobs We're losing tax revenue We're losing spending power And you guys are having to crunch your budgets So this is an issue that I think is very important to localities All right You want to say something? Thank you, Leah If you could hold one moment Alderman Montemarie Thank you again And I sort of agree with Alderman Doyle That perhaps as a common counsel for the city Perhaps we do or do not want to get involved However, I'll bet you have information for us As individual citizens to do things And perhaps now or later or sometime You can get that to all of us Thank you Thank you, Alderman Montemarie I just want to say that SAM is a grassroots organization It was started by small and medium-sized manufacturers I am also president of my own corporation in Menominee Falls I own a wire manufacturing company I'm well aware of the competing problems That I've been having with China And I know where my business is going Our group is just ordinary citizens The ones that you represent every day in Sheboygan We own small, medium-sized businesses And we are employees So this is a community problem Thank you Just for clarification, that was Kathy Schult Is there anything else? Okay, thank you Also, I want to remind you that we have a website That people can visit And it's www.samnow.org We have lots of articles on there As backup to what we're saying here We have updates on what we're doing as an organization And when we talk to your legislators And really, we want to make sure that you guys That your representatives know how you feel about this And especially as a community If every individual community speaks up about this They're going to hear it There was an article in the journal Sentinel A couple of weeks ago that all these representatives And senators heard when they got on recess Was we're in trouble Our jobs are leaving What are we going to do? That's all they heard when they came back from break So we are making a difference And we just got to keep doing this all over So that our state becomes That our representatives become pro-manufacturing For all of us Thank you Thank you, Lee I'd like to make a... Okay, Gerald, briefly Okay, thank you, Alderman Warner For allowing us to be here, Mayor I retired three years ago From a local plastic company after 36 years When I started there in 1964 We had 33 people on my shift And two other shifts We worked 24 hours a day Right now today in that same department They have two people on the night shifts And three on the day shift The jobs went down to Mexico And this is our manufacturing base From Sheboygan here I mean, some of you people, I understand Work in manufacturing Think about it, if this was your job What are you gonna do? You'd be devastated Just like the people at Tecumseh 173 people at Kohler 300 people now at Tecumseh and New Holstein Some of those people transferred From Sheboygan Falls up there Now they're without a job too You just have to stop and think If this resolution doesn't... You don't agree with this resolution Well, that's up to you But we are fighting for American jobs And if you don't help us Well, when your job goes I'll just say, well, sorry about that You didn't help us, why should we help you now? Thank you very much for your time Thank you, Gerald On that note, being there No further questions, I guess First I would like to thank Leah for her presentation To the committee And also, Kathy for being here And for her presentation as well as Gerald I think it is An item like this is something that fits well With the committee of the whole To get it out to the community And to all the persons I think it's a worthwhile thing for discussion Of course, without Gerald, this issue Never would have come before us And as many of us are aware When the playing field is level Americans are always among the top performers And when the scales are tipped in favor of others Americans rise to the top They face the challenge And they often prevail Yet with each passing year of unfair And unbalanced trade practices The playing field is getting harder And harder to compete in It's my hope that we will continue To address the imbalance And that our companies and people Will be allowed to compete fairly And that's my thoughts on this I think that having a discussion like this In this committee reinforces Sheboygan's manufacturing base And I also think that it gives us something To send to our leaders at higher levels And we are to say, look, think about us At home when you make your decisions And I think it's a wise thing to do so But on that, I thank you all For being here tonight and for your presentation And we'll move on to the actual resolution And what I would ask for is a favorable Recommendation from the community of the whole To forward the resolution to our November council Our first meeting in November of the Common Council For consideration I have a motion and a second All in favor, can we do a Chair votes aye, motion passes On that You didn't ask for knees Knees One knee, sorry Jerry Ayes have it, the resolution 158.03 or four will be forwarded To our Common Council meeting in November First meeting, thank you On that, move to adjourn