Jeff Duncan: “shortly before Christmas, all in the same week, we received the news that three separate plants in my district were…”

“shortly before Christmas, all in the same week, we received the news that three separate plants in my district were closing. The two largest employers in Tellico Plains, in Monroe County, TN, announced that they were moving, one to Honduras, one to Mexico. The largest employer in Etowah, in McMinn County, TN, Morgan Manufacturing Co., a blue jeans manufacturer, announced that it was going into bankruptcy, due primarily to NAFTA. Tellico Plains is a town of about 1,000 people. Etowah is a town of about 4,000. These are beautiful, wonderful places to live, but jobs are not easy to come by. These three companies meant a loss of about 1,000 jobs within roughly a 25-mile radius, and these were devastating blows to both these communities. I got Gov. Don Sundquist and his economic development commissioner to go to both places with me, and we are trying to get some help for these people. But, I wonder how much we can do when there seem to be more companies moving out than moving in, and downsizing seems to be the trend of the day.”