Tom Harkin: “that is a letter from the heart. This is not a canned letter. That letter comes from the heart. I do not believe I know…”

“that is a letter from the heart. This is not a canned letter. That letter comes from the heart. I do not believe I know Sherrie Wallace personally, but I sure know a lot of people like her, and I know some of my cousins are in the same situation. It tears your heart out when you see them and when you talk to them. These are people who have given their lives--like I said, it is not as if they were shirking, it is not as if they were cutting down on productivity. In fact, the productivity at that Bridgestone/Firestone, as Sherrie Wallace has said in her letter, has gone up in the last couple of years. The company they went to the State of Iowa in the 1980's and said, ``We need some help, we need government help or we can't exist. We have all these workers here and, oh my gosh, we have to have government help.'' Here is what they asked for: They asked for grants of $1 million from the State; $300,000 from Polk County; $100,000 from the city; $100,000 from Iowa Power; $50,000 from Midwest Gas. They asked for that in May 1987, and in June 1987, they received all the grants. In July 1987, they got their $1 million from the State of Iowa. That same year, they went to the workers and said you have to take cuts or we cannot exist. So the workers took another $4 an hour cut in wages and benefits in 1987. So they asked the workers to produce more. In October 1993, the Des Moines Bridgestone/Firestone plant profit was $5 million ahead of their budget schedule.”