Industry, Manufacturing and Labor: Revitalizing our economy; creating green jobs; setting sound labor policies

My 20/20 Vision will create jobs in Illinois manufacturing and nurture green industries whose products reduce our dependence on foreign oil and protect our environment.

The United States must become the global leader in advanced manufacturing. Gone are the days when manufacturing consisted of low-skilled workers performing repetitive tasks. Today, advanced manufacturing requires an educated, skilled workforce that uses advanced technology and advanced machinery to produce products that have high efficiency and added value.

Wind turbines are an example of an advanced manufacturing product, and they are an apt metaphor for propelling our economy into the future and meeting the many challenges of the 21st century. Wind turbines harness nature in order to reduce our dependence on imported energy sources, protect our environment and create well-paid green jobs. Wind turbines are the type of advanced manufacturing product that brings the future to us right here, right now.

As our nation moves away from reliance on fossil fuels, we will create the next generation of clean energy and the sustainable green jobs that come with it.

A study by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst concluded that significant investment in global-warming solutions would create 2 million jobs in two years, four times the jobs created by investing the same amount in expanding our oil supply. These green investments will create three times the number of good jobs – paying $16 or more an hour – than the number of such jobs created by the same investment in oil.

As senator I will support job-training legislation to produce a skilled workforce prepared to work in green industries. I will also support the pending “Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technology Act,” which would create a $30 billion revolving loan fund to help auto suppliers and other small and medium-sized manufacturers retool their facilities to build clean-energy technologies such as solar panels, fuel cells and battery technology.

There are many potential partners in Illinois that are already working independently toward many of these objectives, including:

• The Peoria-based Illinois Manufacturing Extension Center, a non-profit, statewide economic development and consulting organization that helps small and mid-size manufacturers improve their productivity and competitiveness. IMEC also collaborates with the National Institute of Standards and Technology-Manufacturing Extension Partnership to pursue funding for alternative-energy source initiatives.
• Innovative privately owned small and medium-sized manufacturers such as S&C Electric Company on Chicago’s North Side. S&C’s “Smart Grid” products help municipalities and utility companies integrate renewable-energy sources such as wind power into electrical-grid systems in order to reduce dependence on carbon-emitting sources.
• Local-government initiatives that focus on providing residents with clean, renewable and reliable energy. The north-central Illinois city of Peru recently was granted $1 million in federal funds to build a 2.5-megawatt wind turbine that will reduce dependence on fossil fuels and create green jobs locally.

Manufacturing policy and legislative agenda

►Draft a comprehensive federal policy for rejuvenating manufacturing and creating jobs that:

1. Increases funding for research and development by publicly and privately held companies that supports advanced manufacturing and green-job creation.
2. Provides matching funds for manufacturers that offer in-house worker skills retraining.
3. Establishes a system of national skills standards for salaried and production manufacturing jobs through an education, training and verification system that will increase the global competitiveness of American advanced manufacturing.
4. Encourages the development and sustainability of small businesses as an immediate source of job creation through microloans, R&D incentives, accelerated depreciation and tax credits for new capital expenditures.
5. Provides tax incentives for corporations that “in-source” job to local workforces in areas such as electronics-component manufacturing and assembly and software development.
6. Encourages the reverse flow of low-tech manufacturing (such as sewing and plastics) back “onshore” to the United States, where lower transportation costs and a weakened dollar can now yield efficient and profitable domestic production and distribution.
7. Funds a wind-turbine supply chain initiative to link local companies to rapidly expanding opportunities in the renewable-energy industry.
8. Increases funding to improve state manufacturing infrastructures, including increased broadband access and improved environmentally friendly electricity grids.

Labor: Support for policies that improve working conditions and job security for all Americans

My 20/20 Vision addresses important labor isues.

My support for labor comes from my own real-life experience. When I was 13, as a member of student government I organized a protest at a school board meeting in support of the local NEA teachers union. The board opposed giving a contract to the teachers, who had worked without one for several years. It was devastating to their morale. In the end, the teachers got their contract, and the union gave me its first-ever award for outstanding leadership in the school and community.

For four summers in high school and college, I drove a delivery truck as a seasonal employee covered under the Teamsters union contract.

In my law practice, I have represented a small Chicago auto-parts manufacturer whose insurance company refused to pay employee health-care claims. Several of the workers and their family members were seriously ill and on the verge of having to declare bankruptcy because the insurance company wouldn’t pay. One employee had received about $75,000 in hospital treatments for a life-threatening condition. It was a hard-fought case, but I was able to get the wrongs against these workers redressed.

In the U.S. Senate, I will continue to be an advocate for labor.

Labor policy and legislative agenda

►Employee Free Choice Act: I will support and co-sponsor the Employee Free Choice Act, which would require employers to recognize a union that a majority of employees have authorized to represent them. I believe it is important for workers to have the right to choose union representation in contract negotiations, mediations and arbitrations without fear of intimidation or retribution from their employers.

►Pension and benefit reform: I have had extensive experience in my law practice handling ERISA matters. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 was enacted to protect the interests of employee benefit-plan participants and their beneficiaries, but currently this federal statute is broken and needs reform. In my law practice I have seen firsthand how working families suffer the results of unfunded and underfunded pension plans. As senator I will work to amend ERISA to protect and ensure workers’ pension and benefit rights.

►Education-to-employment pipeline: I will support legislation that funds the creation of polytechnic high schools; increases funding for career and technical education in existing public high schools; and increases funding for regional community colleges to strengthen post-secondary manufacturing training programs. I will also promote legislation that assists current and future generations of workers by providing matching funds for manufacturers that offer in-house training for current employees to update their skills and learn new ones.

►Health-care benefits for retired workers: I will support and co-sponsor legislation to ensure that retired workers receive all the health-care benefits to which they are entitled according to the terms of their contracts when they were actively employed. I will also support and co-sponsor legislation to relieve the burden of health-care legacy costs on domestic manufacturers so that they can be more competitive while at the same time ensuring that retirees receive all promised benefits.