Teamsters Dismayed by Senate Failure to Discourage Offshoring of Jobs

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International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Sep 28, 2010, 05:30 ET

Hoffa: Senate Should Have Acted Before Leaving for Recess

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa today said he was disappointed the Senate failed to end the filibuster of a bill that would help keep jobs in America.

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The Senate couldn't break a filibuster of the Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act (S. 3816). The bill would have killed subsidies to corporations that move facilities or production offshore. It would also have given tax incentives to companies that hire U.S. workers instead of overseas employees.

"Americans are angry because 30 million of them are looking for a full-time job and can't find one," Hoffa said. "A big reason for our employment crisis is that big corporations are moving good American jobs to China and Mexico and other low-wage countries.

"Congress had a chance to help middle-class Americans in their daily lives by enacting this bill. I don't see how the Senate in good conscience could recess without passing it," Hoffa said.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) does three things:

Gives employers relief from their share of the Social Security payroll tax on wages paid to new American employees performing services in the United States. To be eligible, employers must certify that the U.S. employee is replacing an employee who'd been doing the same thing overseas.
Eliminates U.S. subsidies to companies that reduce employment in the U.S. in order to hire people overseas.
Ends the tax subsidy – known as "deferral" – which rewards U.S. companies that move their production offshore.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters