“Josh Hawley’s unflagging support of the Trump administration’s reckless tariffs is directly harming Missouri workers,” said American Bridge spokesperson Amelia Penniman. “Again and again, Hawley has proven he prioritizes his blind loyalty to Trump — and to his own political ambitions — over Missouri families.”
Washington Post: The first layoffs from Trump’s tariffs are here
By Heather Long | June 25, 2018
- “The first casualties of President Trump’s trade war are 60 workers at [Missouri’s] Mid-Continent Nail, America’s largest nail manufacturer.”
- “They lost their jobs on June 15…The whole company could be out of business by Labor Day.”
- “The Trump administration has argued that these tariffs will save jobs and that the cost to America will be minor. But now there are real job losses. Now there is a human face to the pain that so many trade experts have been warning about.”
- “Mid-Continent Nail blames the layoffs on Trump’s tariffs, and the company says all 500 employees could lose their jobs by Labor Day. The next round of cuts could come in a matter of days.”
- After Trump’s steel tariff, “the company was forced to hike its prices, and customers fled. Orders are a mere 30 percent of what they were a year ago, said George Skarich, the vice president of sales. He suspects many customers are now buying Chinese nails.”
- “‘There’s a lot of uncertainty and a ton of fear in Poplar Bluff,’ home to Mid-Continent, Skarich said.”
- “If Skarich had a minute with Trump, he says he’d tell him these tariffs aren’t hurting China, they are hurting Missouri. The workers who lost their jobs on June 15 were contract workers paid about $10 an hour, but the next round of layoffs will hit longtime employees, many of whom are making $13 to $14 an hour, plus benefits. That’s a middle-class job in Poplar Bluff, where the median income is just over $31,000 a year.”
- “[Trump] and his team regularly argue that the tariffs are going to save jobs and even bring jobs back from overseas. But the vast majority of economists and business leaders have warned that many more jobs are likely to be lost than saved.”
Read the full article here.
Published: Jun 26, 2018