Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-9) issued the following statement upon learning that Republic Steel in Lorain, OH might idle an additional 200 employees.
While we have not received any official notification of changes at Republic Steel in Lorain, I continue to fight for those workers and their families who depend on that facility. These are workers whose jobs are under constant threat through no fault of their own. I remain hopeful that a solution may be found that retains work in this signature industry for Lorain. We continue to do all we can to find a path forward for Lorain's steel workers who suffer at the hands of disastrous trade deals and trade policies negotiated and agreed to by their own government.
Just in the past year, workers laid off at Lorain Tubular Operations, Lorain Northern Railroad, and Kyklos Bearing International have all been deemed eligible for TAA support. By definition, that means their jobs were lost as a result of our nation's misguided approach to trade.
Bad trade deals such as NAFTA and the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership leave American workers at the side of the road as they perpetuate the Great American Job Giveaway that has seen production offshored for decades now. These lost jobs reflect the total and repeated failure of our government to prevent other countries, including China, from raiding our economy, closing their own markets to our goods, and committing countless anti-competitive trade abuses including dumping cheap steel into our marketplace below cost.
We have a responsibility to stop deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership from moving forward and to renegotiate past trade deals, including NAFTA, that have proven to be a disaster for our working families. I have proposed legislation to do just that. My Balancing Trade Act (HR 1403) would renegotiate any trade deal that has produced a deficit of more than $10 billion dollars for at least three consecutive years.
How many times will we let this happen before we learn the lessons of our own regrettable trade history? I will continue to do all I can to find a path forward for Northern Ohio's steelworkers. And I will always stand against devastating trade deals, new and old, that threaten to outsource good jobs and dismantle great American industries.
Kaptur, who helped lead the historic fight against NAFTA in 1993, is the sponsor of the Balancing Trade Act (H.R. 1403), which would require the President to renegotiate any trade deal that has resulted in three consecutive years of trade deficit of $10 billion or more.