{"id":1007,"date":"2011-03-09T16:01:16","date_gmt":"2011-03-09T21:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.citizenstrade.org\/ctc\/?p=1007"},"modified":"2011-05-12T15:52:23","modified_gmt":"2011-05-12T19:52:23","slug":"korea-policy-endangers-oregon-tech-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.citizenstrade.org\/ctc\/blog\/2011\/03\/09\/korea-policy-endangers-oregon-tech-jobs\/","title":{"rendered":"Displaced Tech Workers Oppose Korea Trade Agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Displaced high-tech workers and fair trade advocates held a rally outside the main gates of Intel\u2019s Ronler Acres facility in Hillsboro, Oregon to voice their opposition to the Obama administration\u2019s plan to push forward with the Korea Free Trade Agreement, just before the President spoke inside about how education will make the U.S. more competitive in the global economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one is going to argue against increased education, but what Americans really need are jobs.\u00a0\u00a0Too many high-tech positions have already been shipped overseas, and the President\u2019s proposal for a free trade agreement with Korea would make things even worse,\u201d said Mitch Besser, an unemployed software engineer with a Masters Degree in Software Development and over two decades of experience in the field.<\/p>\n

Besser lost his programming job at IGT in Corvallis<\/a> last year when the company closed its local branch, offshoring the majority of its work to China.\u00a0\u00a0Prior to being laid off, Besser and his coworkers had spent much of the year training their Chinese replacements.<\/p>\n

The U.S. International Trade Commission, the federal agency tasked with projecting the outcome of potential U.S. trade policies, estimates that the proposed Korea Free Trade Agreement would increase the U.S. trade deficit in electronics \u2014 a category that includes high-tech sectors like semiconductors and solar panels \u2014 by $762 \u2013 790 million.\u00a0\u00a0The Commission also predicts that the trade pact will increase the overall U.S. trade deficit.<\/p>\n

According to an April 2010 study commissioned by the Alliance for American Manufacturing<\/a>, Oregon\u2019s 1st<\/sup> Congressional District, which is home to Intel and the state\u2019s so-called \u201cSilicon Forest,\u201d already lost a net 14,600 jobs due to imbalanced trade with China between 2001 and 2008.\u00a0\u00a0This was the first seven years after Congress allowed China to join the World Trade Organization. The job loss represented 3.76% of the district\u2019s total employment, making it one of the hardest hit in the entire nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a clear track-record of trade-related job loss in Oregon\u2019s high-tech sector due to past trade policies.\u00a0\u00a0Passing the Korea Free Trade Agreement will only continue that trend,\u201d said \u00a0Elizabeth Swager, Assistant Director of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cPeople are having a hard enough time finding decent work without our elected officials making things even harder.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a message that the President and Members of Congress need to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former workers from Intel have repeatedly been certified for \u201cTrade Adjustment Assistance\u201d by the U.S. Labor Department both in Oregon and across the country, meaning that their jobs were either directly offshored or displaced by imports.\u00a0\u00a0Workers at other Oregon high-tech firms like InFocus, Symantec, Tyco Electronics, Sumco, Pixelworks and more have also had their jobs directly or indirectly offshored.<\/p>\n

9,543 people in Oregon and 12,269 in Washington state are currently employed in the electronics sector.\u00a0\u00a0Other iconic Northwest industries that the U.S. International Trade Commission identifies as threatened by the Korea Free Trade Agreement include wood products, paper, wheat production and transportation equipment.<\/p>\n

One complaint about the Korea trade agreement made by fair trade advocates is that its 35% \u201crule of origin\u201d provisions would allow for up to 65% of a Korean-assembled product that enters the U.S. duty-free to be made in third-party countries like China or Vietnam.\u00a0\u00a0These countries will not have to make reciprocal market access concessions to the U.S., nor meet even basic labor and environmental standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem isn\u2019t that there aren\u2019t enough Americans ready to work.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s that there aren\u2019t many Americans willing to work for the poverty wages paid in most developing countries,\u201d said Besser.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cPassing the Korea Free Trade Agreement will only accelerate this race to the bottom that\u2019s hurting working people everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Displaced high-tech workers and fair trade advocates held a rally outside the main gates of Intel\u2019s Ronler Acres facility in Hillsboro, Oregon to voice their opposition to the Obama administration\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[66,95],"tags":[72,67,71],"yoast_head":"\nDisplaced Tech Workers Oppose Korea Trade Agenda - Citizens Trade Campaign<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.citizenstrade.org\/ctc\/blog\/2011\/03\/09\/korea-policy-endangers-oregon-tech-jobs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Displaced Tech Workers Oppose Korea Trade Agenda - Citizens Trade Campaign\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Displaced high-tech workers and fair trade advocates held a rally outside the main gates of Intel\u2019s Ronler Acres facility in Hillsboro, Oregon to voice their opposition to the Obama administration\u2019s […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.citizenstrade.org\/ctc\/blog\/2011\/03\/09\/korea-policy-endangers-oregon-tech-jobs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Citizens Trade Campaign\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-09T21:01:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-12T19:52:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.citizenstrade.org\/ctc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/MitchBesseratIntel.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CTC\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.citizenstrade.org\/ctc\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.citizenstrade.org\/ctc\/\",\"name\":\"Citizens Trade Campaign\",\"description\":\"Working Together for Social and Environmental Justice in Trade Policy\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.citizenstrade.org\/ctc\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.citizenstrade.org\/ctc\/blog\/2011\/03\/09\/korea-policy-endangers-oregon-tech-jobs\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.citizenstrade.org\/ctc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/MitchBesseratIntel.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.citizenstrade.org\/ctc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/MitchBesseratIntel.jpg\",\"width\":\"1536\",\"height\":\"2048\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.citizenstrade.org\/ctc\/blog\/2011\/03\/09\/korea-policy-endangers-oregon-tech-jobs\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.citizenstrade.org\/ctc\/blog\/2011\/03\/09\/korea-policy-endangers-oregon-tech-jobs\/\",\"name\":\"Displaced Tech Workers Oppose Korea Trade Agenda - 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