Wisconsin: Burke Perpetuates the Corporate Myth that Outsourcing is a Necessary Evil

[Scuba]

http://www.uppitywis.org/blogarticle/burke-continues-peddle-corporate-myth-outsourcing-necessary-evil

Last week, yet another Department of Labor "Trade Adjustment Assistance" (TAA) certification was issued, following an application by laid-off Trek workers who said that "production has been shifted to China." This follows an unmistakable trend for Trek: between 1998 and 2011, Trek went from making 80% of their bikes in the United States to making less than one percent here.

In response to the TAA certification, Mary Burke's campaign spokesperson Joe Zapecki repeated the campaign's assertion that Trek's outsourcing was based purely on necessity, saying that U.S. trade policy needed to be changed to "level the playing field between the U.S. and its trading partners so that more family supporting manufacturing jobs are created right here in Wisconsin."

...

While it is true that bad trade deals have forced some U.S. corporations into outsourcing because their competitors were using outsourcing to sell products for less than it costs to produce in the United States, there is no evidence that this occurred at Trek.

In fact, between 1998 and 2011, Trek's sales tripled and they became the world's second largest manufacturer of bicycles and the dominant leader in the so-called "bike shop" sector. However, during the same time, Trek’s bike prices remained approximately the same. In other words, there wasn't the "price pressure" to outsource as there is in some sectors.

Why, why, why is Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate pushing this anti-labor corporatist for Governor?

[Turbineguy]

1. It is a necessary evil

but management bonuses have to come from somewhere.