Political Quotes

“Mr. President, for generations, manufacturing was the lifeblood of communities across Ohio and throughout the country. It was heavily unionized. The jobs paid well. It is not a coincidence that those two things go together. We know carrying a union card means better wages, better hope in retirement benefits, and more control over the workers' schedule. These jobs allowed generations of Americans to build a middle-class life. But beginning in the seventies and eighties, we stopped making things in this country. Look at places like my hometown of Mansfield, OH. I went to Johnny Appleseed Junior High School, Mansfield Senior High School. I walked the halls with sons and daughters of autoworkers from GM and machinists of Ohio Brass and electrical workers from Westinghouse and rubber workers from Mansfield Tire and hundreds and hundreds of the sons and daughters of people in the building trades-- laborers and pipe fitters and carpenters and millwrights and painters and one trade after another. Companies like Westinghouse and Tappan Stove all closed down one after another. Go to any town in Ohio and throughout the industrial Midwest and people can name a similar list. We know what happened: Corporations in Ohio shut down production in Mansfield, my hometown, or Lorain, where I was today, or Youngstown or Cincinnati or Toledo, in search of cheaper labor, in search of right- to-work States, and in search of weaker workers' compensation or unemployment benefit laws.…”