Why Biden's Build Back Better Campaign Is Needed In Decimated Manufacturing Communities
'Why decimated manufacturing communities need Joe Biden’s Build Back Better campaign.' By Tom Conway, Independent Media Institute, July 25, 2020, Alternet. - Excerpts:
Rich Cucarese and other members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 4889 tend a vegetable garden, cook meals and operate a food pantry for their neighbors in Philadelphia’s struggling Nicetown community. Nicetown went into decline decades ago as corporations shut a string of factories, eliminating thousands of family-sustaining jobs that anchored the neighborhood. Blight festered, poverty soared, and government officials looked the other way. Now, as much as Cucarese and his colleagues want to revitalize the community, there’s just no way they can do it on their own.
Reversing decades of decline and neglect—in Nicetown and other decimated manufacturing communities across America—will require bold, sustained action like what Joe Biden proposed in his Build Back Better manufacturing blueprint.
The Democratic presidential candidate envisions major investments in manufacturing, technology, and research and development that will create millions of middle-class jobs and revitalize hard-hit communities across the country. Just as important, he wants to equitably distribute these new opportunities while providing the educational access and labor protections essential to ensuring that all citizens have a shot at the American dream. The COVID-19 pandemic, which cost millions of jobs and exposed America’s struggle to produce critical goods like face masks, clearly demonstrated what residents of Nicetown have known for decades: Band-Aids and half measures aren’t enough.
The nation needs sweeping, coordinated action to rebuild manufacturing capacity. For all the damage they suffered, Nicetown and other beleaguered manufacturing communities still have potential. Biden’s plan would unleash it.
“There are definitely people in the community who are trying everything they can to make the area viable,” said Cucarese, Local 4889’s Rapid Response coordinator and an assistant operator on the galvanizing line at U.S. Steel’s plant in Fairless Hills, about 25 miles from Nicetown. “There’s despair, but there’s also hope.” Over the past quarter-century, America lost millions of manufacturing jobs, many because failed trade policies incentivized corporations to shift operations to countries with low wages and lax environmental regulations. But employers also eliminated jobs because of bankruptcies, mergers and other reasons. The loss of family-sustaining wages gutted the middle class and sent manufacturing neighborhoods into a nosedive.
Under Build Back Better, the nation would invest $300 billion in research, development and new technologies to fuel a reinvigorated manufacturing economy while spending another $400 billion on American-made goods. Biden pledged to spend some of that money on the steel, aluminum and other materials needed to repair roads, bridges and other crumbling infrastructure. The funds also could be used to ramp up manufacturing capacity in pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and other critical industries so the nation never again experiences shortages of face masks and other important items like it did during the pandemic.
But new jobs themselves aren’t enough to rebuild the middle class and restore prosperity to struggling communities. Americans also need stronger labor protections to ensure they receive decent pay, good benefits and safe working conditions in return for their labor...
Read More, https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/why-decimated-manufacturing-communities-need-joe-bidens-build-back-better-campaign/
