Job losses in rural West from trade deals

Western states haven’t been immune to the job losses from trade deals that turned the Midwest into “Rust Belt.”  Rural communities, like Dillon in southwest Montana, have also been hit hard by outsourcing.

Trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) paved the way for big corporations to outsource thousands of good-paying American jobs to countries with lower standards and cheaper labor.

Corporations outsource U.S. jobs

In Montana, over 5,000 workers lost their jobs due to increased imports or offshoring jobs because of trade deals in the past two decades since NAFTA.

Now, with help from a new database in the Public Citizen’s Trade Data Center, we can put a face to the job losses in our communities.

For instance, a healthcare technology company in Dillon outsourced their IT department to India. In a town of just 4,000 people, the loss of even a handful of good-paying jobs can strike a painful blow.

Database of trade job losses

With a quick search, here are some other examples of jobs lost from trade deals in Western states:

  • A swing set manufacturer in Brookings, S.D., shifted 219 production jobs to China
  • A Bismarck, N.D.,construction company outsourced 406 jobs to the Czech Republic
  • A Cody, Wyo., maker of women’s denim jeans lost 7 jobs to rising imports from Canada and Mexico
  • 167 employees making truck instruments in Grand Junction, Colo., lost their jobs when production shifted to Mexico.
  • Hundreds of employees making memory chips in Boise, Idaho, lost their jobs when production moved to Singapore, Japan, China and Malaysia.
  • A camper manufacturer in La Grande and Pendleton, Ore., lost 344 jobs when they shifted production to Mexico.
We know about these jobs lost because the Department of Labor certifies these trade-impacted workplaces under its Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program.  Companies or state agencies apply to TAA so laid-off workers can get training and temporary income assistance. The database contains all TAA petitions certified or denied since January 1994.

TPP will cost more U.S. Jobs

This year, Congress will decide if the U.S. should enter a huge new trade deal that expands NAFTA, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Among other reasons, WORC opposes the TPP because it will offshore good-paying American jobs, lower wages for the remaining jobs, and increase income inequality. TPP will force U.S. employers to compete with companies exploiting labor in countries such as Vietnam, where workers earn less that 65 cents an hour, and Malaysia, where about one-third of workers in the export-oriented electronics industry are victims of human trafficking.

Stop the TPP

Subscribe to WORC’s action list to stay informed and for opportunities to take action to stop the TPP in Congress.

Visit Public Citizen’s Trade Data Center for more information about how your community has been impacted by trade deals.

For more information or to join the effort for fair trade, contact WORC regional organizer Liz Stelk at lmoran (at) worc.org.