Job one: Create more jobs

Good jobs are the engine of our economy. And we all know good jobs are rapidly disappearing from the American landscape.

In the last two years alone, our nation lost a staggering 2.1 million high-wage manufacturing jobs and more than 5 million since 2000.

The unemployment rate is running well over 10 percent in many regions, imperiling state and local budgets and consumer-driven businesses from the car wash to the computer store, causing further job losses in those sectors and threatening to deepen the recession we’re trying to recover from.

Our manufacturing base hasn’t been in a freefall because American companies are inefficient or producing goods no longer in demand. U.S.-based manufacturers remain among the most productive in the world, and demand abounds for cell phones, televisions, laptops, appliances and a host of other consumer goods no longer made here.

But American companies can’t compete against countries that offer massive subsidies to their manufacturers, provide health care for their citizens, undervalue their currencies and pay workers abysmally low wages. China has now surpassed us in automobile production. We simply cannot continue down the road we’re on while China and other nations overtake us.

We won’t regain ground without a sufficiently broad and strategically targeted program to revitalize American manufacturing and spur consumer spending.

Health care reform

An integral part of such a program has to include real health care reform.

The skyrocketing costs of insurance premiums, co-pays and prescription drugs are placing U.S. companies at a severe competitive disadvantage, pushing families into poverty and straining government budgets.

We’re close to enacting health care reform, but key differences between the House and Senate bills passed last year have yet to be worked out. We must keep the pressure on Congress to pass a bill that will rein in out-of-control costs and expand access to the millions of uninsured Americans.

Level workers’ playing field

It’s time to bring a level playing field to the American workplace. A recent Gallup Poll showed a majority of Americans favor reforms to make it easier for workers to form their own unions.

Changing the law to provide workers with a more effective means of controlling their destiny is exactly what the Employee Free Choice Act is all about. It would restore the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively, free from employer intimidation and coercion.

And it would require employers to recognize a union whenever a majority of the workers sign authorization cards indicating they want union representation.

The bill has majority support in both houses of Congress, and President Obama has indicated he would sign it into law.

It’s clear that persistence and hard work pay off, as shown by UAW Local 2121 members at Foxwoods Casino Resort in Connecticut who recently ratified their first contract after three years. The 2,500 casino dealers at the nation’s largest gaming complex are an inspiration to others like them across the country.

The choice is clear

The roadmap to economic recovery is clear: invest in our industries and our infrastructure, enforce fair trade practices, strengthen workers’ rights and make health care accessible to all.

The costs of inaction are clear, too: an economic recovery that continues to stall out instead of revving up when Americans need it the most.

Ron Gettelfinger