Bring Jobs Home

AFL-CIO WORKING FAMILIES CALL ON CONGRESS TO ‘BRING JOBS HOME’ TO COMMEMORATE FOURTH OF JULY

June 22, 2012
Activists kick off activity on June 25th to call on Congress to pass the “Bring Jobs Home” Act and re-align tax and trade policies
Events will also target GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s record on offshoring jobs

Washington, DC -- In the week leading up to Fourth of July celebrations, working families across the country will gather outside politicians’ and corporations’offices to demand they take steps now to bring good jobs home and invest in America. There will be a kick-off event on Friday June 22 at a T-Mobile call center in Allentown, PA where over 600 workers are losing their jobs and T-Mobile is re-routing those calls through international call centers. Events will also target GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney whose company Bain capital invests in companies that ship U.S. jobs overseas. Participants, on Friday and throughout the week, will urge their elected officials to help keep and create jobs in the U.S. by doing the following:

Pass the Bring Jobs Home Act (S. 2884), which eliminates the tax deduction U.S. companies receive for moving expenses and rewards businesses that bring jobs back to the U.S. with a tax credit.
Address currency manipulation by other countries, which is a key driver of offshoring,
Tax the overseas income of U.S. corporations the same way we tax their domestic income, so they can no longer lower their tax bill by shifting income and jobs overseas,
Push for fair trade policies that benefit workers—not just multinational corporations,
Pass the United States Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act to prevent offshoring more service-sector jobs.
“Every major industrial country has a strategic plan to create and keep good jobs. It’s time for us to follow suit.” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “We need a real plan that lives up to our patriotic ideals – a plan to put our people back to work and end the tax breaks and flawed trade policies that encourage rampant offshoring.”

Participants will note that over the last decade, Americans have seen more than 50,000 manufacturing facilities close, while we have lost 6 million manufacturing jobs. Working families continue to struggle while the unemployment rate stagnates at 8 percent. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress have failed to act on a legislative agenda that will create and keep jobs here at home – while too many of our existing tax and trade policies continue to reward multinational companies who offshore jobs.

Contact: Amaya Tune (202) 637-5018