Excerpt from Lou Dobbs CNN show. It is significant that the mill owner from North Carolina, who voted for Bush in 2000, is going to vote Kerry this time. And this show aired before Kerry's choice of Edwards:
***********************************************************
PILGRIM: The textile industry has been devastated by the exporting of American jobs to cheap foreign labor markets, and now one North Carolina company is fighting back at the ballot box. The Saunders Thread company has registered every one of its employees to vote in the upcoming election. Lisa Sylvester reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hal Rippie (ph) is a manager at the Saunders Thread Company in North Carolina. <font color=red>He voted for President Bush in the last election but now has harsh words for his presidential choice. <font color=black>
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: <font color=red>Anyone's got to be better than Bush. A pizza delivery man would be better than Bush. <font color=black>
SYLVESTER: <font color=red>Rippie not crazy about Kerry, either, but sees him as the candidate more likely to save the textile industry. <font color=black>
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've lost so many jobs in textiles it's pitiful. I've been in two plant closings, I don't want to be in another one.
SYLVESTER: Gaston County, North Carolina, has lost 8,000 manufacturing jobs since the last presidential election. Charles Saunders, the owner of the thread company, believes the only way to reverse the trend is by exercising the right to vote. He held a voter registration drive at his plant, the first since the company opened four decades ago. Now all 39 of his employees are registered.
CHARLES SAUNDERS, SAUDERS THREAD COMPANY: These are the people who are losing their jobs by policies that come out of Washington and the only way they're going to get their voice heard is at the ballot box.
SYLVESTER: The AFL-CIO is also tapping into workers' anger. This year the labor union started its voter registration drive early, reaching 500,000 workers in a door-to-door campaign in the 16 battleground states in the last month.
RICHARD TRUMKA, AFL-CIO: We've started earlier and we're seeing more enthusiasm and activism earlier this time because workers are so angry and so fed up about the economy, about the lack of good jobs, about the lack of affordable healthcare.
SYLVESTER: Republicans, not to be outdone by the Democrats, are also starting their voter registration drive early. They hope to register 3 million new voters by November. Their strategy includes using an 18-wheeler to target voters at NASCAR races, and trying to appeal to young conservatives on college campuses. Lisa Sylvester, CNN, Washington.
For the entire transcript:
cnn.com |
