Wed, Jun 29, 2005
Program Founded 31-Years Ago -- Union Says It's Outdated
Northwest Airline mechanics
say Congress and the Bush Administration need to update a federal
program that was made into law in 1974 to help manufacturing
workers who lose their jobs to outsourcing. The Trade Adjustment
Assistance (TAA) program, adopted before the expansion of the U.S.
service economy, should extend the same temporary unemployment
benefits, retraining assistance and health care credits to service
employees whose jobs have been outsourced, said Ted Ludwig,
president of Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) Local
33.
"It is unfair and un-American to abandon displaced service
workers and their families, just because treating them the same as
displaced manufacturing workers would cost more. This simple reform
has been discussed for quite a while. Now it's time for President
Bush and Congress to do the right thing," Ludwig said. Reforms to
allow certification of worker eligibility by industry and
occupation, instead of at individual worksites, are also necessary
to make TAA more efficient and fair, according to Ludwig.
Ludwig said the TAA
renewal must be included in the Central American Free Trade
Agreement (CAFTA), which the Administration presented to Congress
last week for approval. "CAFTA is a logical vehicle for TAA reform
and is the last chance we'll have for a while to fix TAA," said
Ludwig.
TAA says it's helped many thousands of American workers laid off
because of outsourcing move into new careers. But because of the
gaping hole that excludes service workers, TAA benefits haven't
been available to the more than 2,500 aircraft technicians in the
Twin Cities alone who have lost their jobs to outsourcing in the
last few years.
"Most of our members are breadwinners, and enrolling full-time
in a partially subsidized two-year retraining program isn't an
option for them when they need to support their families --
especially when unemployment benefits run out after 26 weeks," said
Ludwig. "TAA would allow our laid-off members and thousands like
them across the service sector to move into new careers, minimizing
the potential for long-term dependence on government assistance.
It's money well spent."
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