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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (46524)	5/18/2004 9:50:39 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Broken promises in the Rust Belt Workers in old-line industries who feel betrayed by government in the face of foreign competiton and high labor costs may be pivotal in this presidential election year. By Stephen J. Glain, Globe Staff \| May 16, 2004 WEIRTON, W. Va -- The steel mill in this Ohio Valley hamlet was built in 1909, before there was a main street, a school system, or a telephone grid. At peak production a generation ago, some 13,000 people clocked into the sprawling factory each day to produce the sheet metal for V-8 Chevrolets and the plating for armored personnel carriers bound for war in Vietnam. Weirton's boutiques, diners, and dry goods shops thrived off the generous wages and pensions of mill workers and retirees. Once solidly Democratic, West Virginia was lured by its middle class prosperity into the ''silent majority" that elected Richard Nixon in 1972. It has swung back and forth politically in the years since, home to both Reagan Democrats and Clinton Republicans. When the US economy boomed, industrial towns like Weirton prospered. For years, the Weirton Steel Corp. was one of the nation's largest employee-owned companies and it was good to its shareholders. Valley residents used to have a saying about the mill: That's not steam coming out of those stacks, but dollar bills. These days, even as the United States has been recovering, Weirton Steel is producing starkly less of both. The company hasn't shown a profit since 1998, largely because of cutthroat competition from overseas, unfavorable exchange rates, factory automation, and rising labor costs. Weirton's once-robust Main Street is a dreary arcade of bars, strip joints, and a Chinese restaurant called Emperor Sichuan. Increasingly, steelmakers and other old-line manufacturing industries -- rubbermakers in Ohio, autobuilders in Detroit, plastics producers in Pennsylvania -- feel betrayed by a government that once relied on them for the very backbone of the country's economy. Workers and bosses alike blame Washington -- the Clinton and Bush administrations -- for abandoning them. Rust Belt America is destined to play a crucial role in this presidential election year. States like West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan are almost evenly divided into Republican and Democratic camps, and Bush and his presumed Democratic challenger, John F. Kerry, are spending tens of millions of dollars in pursuit of precious electoral votes in these states. Bush and Al Gore split these states in 2000. Bush, however, will find it difficult to repeat his modest success in this region by running on the economy. Despite three straight quarters of strong growth, states like West Virginia are caught in the pincers of an economic transition driven by recession, technological advance, the swelling burden of workers' compensation, and the rise of China as a peer competitor. During the Democratic primaries, candidates who bashed outsourcing or assailed ''Benedict Arnold corporations" -- as Kerry labeled companies that exported jobs -- won applause and votes in the Rust Belt. Bush, meanwhile, was criticized this year when he let expire duties on imported steel he imposed in 2001 to give the industry a chance to regroup in the face of foreign competition. The tariffs were to last three years, subject to an 18-month review. Continued... 1 2 3 Next boston.com