USW Decries Continued Job Loss to Mexico

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- United Steelworkers International President Tom Conway issued the following statement in response to last week's announcement that FreightCar America will be abandoning its plant in Cherokee, Ala., and consolidating operations in Castanos, Mexico:

"The recent announcement that FreightCar America will be closing its Alabama facility and shifting its production to Mexico is further proof that we have not effectively reversed the trend of sending American jobs abroad.

"Greedy corporations continually hold the threat of offshoring jobs over their workers' heads, using it as a cudgel to thwart attempts to improve wages and working conditions, as FreightCar America did when workers there tried to organize.

"But the sad reality is that our country's tax system and trade policies make it too easy for corporations to abandon their dedicated American work forces in search of ever greater profits, regardless of the concessions they try to force domestic workers to accept.

"Now, because the majority of America's leaders have all but given up on comprehensive manufacturing policy, 500 more hard-working Americans will be out of work and yet another company calling itself American will be operating out of Mexico."

The USW represents 850,000 workers employed in metals, mining, pulp and paper, rubber, chemicals, glass, auto supply and the energy-producing industries, along with a growing number of workers in health care, public sector, higher education, tech and service occupations.

Contact: Jess Kamm Broomell, 412-562-2444, [email protected]

SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW)

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