The Job You Save May Be your Own
American manufacturing industries, especially those involving significant labor content - jobs for American workers - have been virtually destroyed by imports. IBEW Journal' THE "IMPORT"...
...Singapore, run by the anti-worker government of Lee Kuan Yew since 1959, has imposed press restrictions, jailed students, unionists and leftists, and detained political prisoners for more than 13 years without a trial...
...space...
...Would General Instrument be able to break a strike of its New York workers if it knew that production from its offshore plants would be halted...
...In the final analysis, though, legislation, while it has some positive aspects, can only achieve limited effects since it ultimately cannot tie capital down in one country or one region...
...Import/export services, and ad- No need to move your engr Now ft ministration package low as S1.231hr...
...9 Texas Instruments has licensing agreements with Nippon Electric, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Toshiba and Sony, five of the largest Japanese electronics producers, some of the United States' stiffest competitors.10 Furthermore, Honeywell has licensing agreements with Nippon Electric, RCA is similarly tied to Hitachi, Sperry Rand to Oki Electric and TRW to Mitsubishi.11 Things got so cozy between Westinghouse and Mitsubishi that the Justice Department finally brought suit against the giant electric company, charging it with conspiring with Mitsubishi over a 47-year period in the use of patents and technology agreements and in a clear violation of anti-trust laws...
...U.S...
...Ibid...
...6. Electronic News, January 8, 1973...
...VIII, No...
...Some examples: *Texas Instruments set up a 50-50 joint venture with Sony for the manufacture of semiconductors and control devices...
...foreign policy, one which will "stand up to the Commies" abroad and prevent their "taking over" still other parts of the world...
...This was recently confirmed by International Tariff Commission economists who noted that "the 25% tariff [proposed by the ITC for imported color televisions] would be likely to add an average of S30 to the wholesale price per unit for both imported and U.S.-produced products, because it was considered likely that U.S...
...Technology transfers through licensing agreements are critically important in the electronics industry, given the rapid development of technology in the field...
...The various "Free Labor Institutes" (American Institute for23 Free Labor Development, AIFLD, for Latin America...
...Even the U.S...
...semiconductor industry established a dominant technological grip on the field...
...firms could still run away, but duties on their products imported into the United States, both components requiring further assembly and final consumer goods, would be higher...
...On the corporate side, COMPACT members included two producers of glass envelopes for TV tubes, Corning Glass Works and Owens-Illinois, and two electronics firms, Sprague Electric Co...
...In a very real way, then, workers in the United States are made to pay for repression and low wages abroad...
...As their actions demonstrate, repeal would be a serious blow to electronics firms since it would increase their costs and weaken their competitive posture vis-a-vis foreign firms...
...And it means that U.S...
...Fortune, as cited in Pacific Basin Reports, July 15, 1972...
...New York Times, April 3, 1977...
...counterpart firms...
...Wickham Skinner and David Rogers, Manufacturing Policy in the Electronics Industry, A Casebeook of Mjor Production Problems (Homewood, Illinois: Richard D. Irwin, Inc...
...Sprague Electric, one of the last family-owned electronics companies, was taken over by General Cable late last year...
...Not being able to rely on legislation or the capitalists, therefore, workers must rely on their own strength and on the strength of international solidarity...
...aid to anti-worker governments is not removed...
...of Japan...
...3. John E. Tilton, International Diffusion of Technology: The Case of Semiconductors (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1971), 57, 141 and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Gaps In Technology: Electronic Components (Paris: OECD), 1968...
...NACLA interview with production manager at Western Massachusetts electronics plant, March 11, 1977...
...producers...
...National Credit Office, Electronic Marketing Directory, June 1976 (New York: National Credit Office), 1976...
...The most extensive contacts between organized labor in the United States and abroad exist via mechanisms established by the United States government...
...The ITC recently accepted the petition and recommended that President Carter impose a tariff hike starting at 25% for the next two years with gradual reductions after that time...
...18 Japanese exporters captured nearly 40% of the color TV market in the United States in 1976, more than double their share of 1975.19 This competition has placed a severe strain on U.S...
...As stated earlier, it is the movement of capital in search of higher profits that has caused job losses in the electronics industry...
...V, No...
...Few people actually believe that the United States could unilaterally impose tariff barriers without arousing the anger and concrete retaliation of other developed capitalist countries...
...Thus, for international coordination around contract negotiations to be successful, a third step must be advocated: to organize the unorganized...
...Janet Salaff, " 'Modern Times' in Hong Kong," Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, Vol...
...28 He added that a 16-inch black and white television with an import price of S48 sold for S142.50 in U.S...
...Business Week, November 22, 1976...
...Babson, "The Multinational Corporation," 32...
...NACLA interview with production manager at Western Massachusetts electronics firm, March 1977...
...1975 Electronics Market Data Book, 108...
...For the situation in Mexico, see NACLA's Hit & Ruan...
...exports less attractive in foreign countries and there would be a consequent decline in U.S...
...Blue-collar" workers were said to solidly support U.S...
...13 COMPACT: WHO IS BEING DUMPED ON...
...Electronic News, September 27, 1976...
...The reason for this is fairly simple: workers in those countries most often are unorganized...
...Electronic News, March 4, 1974...
...See Tilton, International Diffusion, 167...
...IUE News, February and March 1975...
...With workers organized at home and abroad, strikes against a multinational firm in one country could be supported by workers at that company's plants in other countries...
...9. Pacific Basin Reports (San Francisco), August 15, 1973...
...The Steelworkers, Autoworkers and the IUE have all attempted some limited measures to coordinate bargaining on an international level, and they have also helped prepare foreign unions for negotiations with U.S...
...Pacific Basin Reports, July 15, 1972, 216...
...Electronic News, February 16, 1976...
...Are labor's interests at all advanced...
...Finally, in March 1977, Warwick Electronics (which produced TVs for Sears Roebuck) sold out to Sanyo Electric Co...
...Prices of components may go down as well as selected consumer goods (calculators, wrist watches), but all companies producing offshore turn low wages into profits, not low prices...
...Thailand has been run by a cruel military junta since the October 1976 coup...
...Industry Series: Communication Equipment, Including Radio and TV, Electronic Components and Accessories...
...23 Malaysia has banned student political activity since June 1975, and little needs to be said about the reactionary nature of the government in Taiwan...
...2o This has left many companies ripe for foreign plucking...
...Then Magnavox was purchased by the N.A...
...File no...
...V, No...
...Foreign imports have robbed U.S...
...GPO, July 12, 1976) Table I. 4. Electronic News, April 30, 1973...
...V, No...
...House of Representatives, Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Trade, Special Duty Treatment or Repeal of Articles Assembled or Fabricated Abroad...
...workers who cannot pay the higher U.S...
...Or Corning Glass, with operations in Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Mexico, Bermuda and throughout Europe and South America...
...6. Business Week, July 5, 1976...
...24 [See Table HI-I1 If we add to this the S13.6 billion which the United States has given these countries (plus Hong Kong) in economic aid from 1946-1973, we find that over S30 billion has been poured into these eight countries by the United States alone since the end of the Second World TABLE II-I-1 U.S...
...If taxes on corporate investments and profits abroad were increased to equal taxes paid in the United States-as was suggested in the Burke-Hartke bill-corporations would find much less incentive for abandoning the United States...
...Electronic News, November 8, 1976...
...Labor organizing in the Far East and Latin America will continue to be extremely difficult as long as the United States pours billions of dollars into governments which have banned unions, smashed strikes, outlawed progressive and leftist parties and jailed or murdered labor and political leaders...
...A concrete examination of one such joint union-employer organization can help us answer this...
...unions this means taking active steps to organize the millions of still unorganized workers in this country...
...In the second article we noted that the major locations of U.S...
...Numbers 98-99 (July 1974), 46...
...Taiwan: Where the Jobs Have Gone," IUE News, September 1976...
...International Parks...
...1 2 U.S...
...If these Items were repealed, a U.S...
...With the increase in imports from Japan, many U.S...
...and Wells-Gardner Electronics Corporation...
...For U.S...
...1-3406) 16...
...New York Times, January 31, 1971...
...COMPACT, the Committee to Preserve American Color Television, was formed in mid-1976 by four corporations and eleven unions...
...Foreign imports have recently cut deeply into the consumer-products branch of electronics...
...Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment and Earnings In the United States, 1909-1975, Bulletin 1312-10 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1976...
...Capital can move from country to country, seeking the most profitable situation, but workers must face the consequences of a trade war at home...
...NACLA, "Capital's Flight," 10-11...
...Various legislative measures have been proposed as a method of fighting the runaways...
...3 2 The interests of workers, not capitalists, must come to dominate in forums of international labor contact and coordination...
...New York University Graduate School of Business Administration, Institute of Finance, The Bulletin, Nos...
...Mallory controls 40% of the stock of Mitsubishi Mallory Yakin Kogyo KK...
...Thus, not only are workers taxed to support low-wage areas abroad, not only do workers not receive the benefits of low-priced consumer goods from the runaways, but they are also taxed to help make the companies more profitable...
...Electronic News, December 20, 1976...
...UE, How Foreign is Foreign Competition...
...The case of the U.S...
...Again, jobs in those industries would be lost at home...
...Forbes, September 15, 1975...
...war policies and much media play was given to "hard hats" breaking up anti-war demonstrations...
...The union members include the AFL-CIO's Industrial Union Department, IUE, IBEW, the Allied Industrial Workers, Flint Glass Workers, Communication Workers of America, Glass Bottle Blowers, machinists, furniture workers and United Steel Workers (all members of the AFL-CIO), and the Independent Radionic Workers...
...Control Data Corporation, Korea Report...
...Japan exported 2.4 million color TV sets into the United States in the first 10 months of 1976, up from 1.3 million sets per year between 1973 and 1975...
...Government, business and numerous trade union leaders all harped on the same theme: it is in the interests of the U.S...
...and Japanese electronics producers together...
...stores...
...workers are rapidly losing their jobs in many industries...
...Electronic News, May 31, 1976...
...As we have seen, producers without a technology quickly find themselves far behind in the field...
...the Asian-American Free Labor Institute and the AfricanAmerican Labor Center) have all been proven to be instruments of the CIA, the State Department and the corporations...
...WHO PAYS FOR LOW WAGES ABROAD...
...5. House, Background Information, A24, A21...
...Tilton, International Diffusion, 71...
...40...
...9. See Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Gaps In Technology: Electronic Components (Paris: OECD, 1968), 29ff and John Tilton, International Diffusion of Technology: The Case of Semiconductors (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution), 1971...
...New York: UE, 1971), 13...
...VI, No...
...Calif or 23-4170, Seoul...
...3 (April 1975...
...This would make U.S...
...minimum wage levels...
...3 (Spring/Summer 1975), 51-63...
...Seeking repeal of these provisions, as the unions have done by introducing over 20 bills, could be seen as discouraging U.S...
...Department of Commerce, U.S...
...jobs in certain industries by imposing trade restrictions...
...firms...
...1 (January 1976...
...1974), 37...
...1974), 44...
...Our analysis of the electronics industry has shown that many electronics jobs left the United States because industrialists sought higher profits through lower wages abroad, not because of import competition...
...Electronic News, January 8, 1973...
...firms, nevertheless, have sold over 6,000 patents to the Japanese (including many electronic patents) since 1950...
...Electronic News, May 31, 1976...
...XI, No...
...But, sooner or later, all workers must take a stand and decide "which side are you on...
...offshore plants were raised to U.S...
...See Hund, "Electronics...
...Cited in Pacific Imperialism Notebook, Vol...
...This would entail not only building new links, but destroying old ones as well...
...What is the bottom line of support for this policy...
...military aid in the last 30 years...
...4 Given the fact, then, that the semiconductor industry is the most labor-intensive branch of electronics, and that semiconductor firms moved offshore in order to compete with other domestic firms, we can discard as misleading the assertion that foreign imports are the major cause of job losses at home in electronics...
...increase of tariffs through similar measures...
...7 "*Honeywell owns 50% of the shares of YamatakeHoneywell Co...
...27 And Paul Jennings of the IUE agreed, remarking that "American companies are able to enjoy the best of both worlds...
...foreign policy--one of the props of protectionism-not only leads to repression against foreign workers but also undermines jobs and wages in the United States...
...It is likely that other countries would respond to a U.S...
...6. Pacific Basin Reports (August 1973), 162...
...Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment and Earnings...
...Few of these steps, however, can be very successful if U.S...
...banks to Japanese electronics firms, it is20 interesting to note that firms linked with U.S...
...Bureau of the Census, Census of Manufacturers, 1972...
...In 1976, U.S...
...V, No...
...MILITARY ASSISTANCE TO RUNAWAY HOST COUNTRIES, EAST ASIA AND THE PACIFIC, 1946-1975 (USS Millions) COUNTRY AID Indonesia S 301.8 Malaysia 63.7 Philippines 945.0 Singapore 20.9 S. Korea 8,871.8 Taiwan 4,410.1 Thailand 1,707.1 TOTAL Source: NACLA' s S16,320.4 "U.S...
...Bureau of Labor Statistics, Productivity Indexes for Selected Industries, 1975 Edition, Bulletin 1890 (Washington, D.C.: Department of Labor), 1976...
...capital in the 1950's and 1960's...
...The answers to these questions are no, and they all point to the fact that if labor is to stop capital from running, it has to run faster than capital, organizing workers at home and abroad and depriving the capitalists of the bucket of gold which awaits them at the end of the rainbow: the 10 cents an hour wage...
...Secondly, workers can further develop the practice of international coordinated bargaining and mutual aid...
...These Far Eastern "allies" also share another dubious distinction...
...In the shoe, apparel, textile and electronics industries, both trade union leaders and bosses have supported joint campaigns to raise tariffs and "buy American...
...Pacfie Basin Reports, April 1, 1971...
...As we saw in the previous article, one effect of 806/807 was to adapt tariffs to electronics producers' needs...
...producers abroad can still escape high tariffs by cloaking themselves in the protective folds of Items 806.30 and 807.00 of the Tariff Schedule...
...But is this the case...
...Research and development expenses for the electronics industry are exceptionally high...
...Military Assistance Programs," in NACLA's Latin America and Empire Report, Vol...
...Singapore's government has been called socialist, but, according ot 22...
...As the IBEW put it, "Buying only American-made products and avoiding imports is healthy for the American economy," (leaving out of the picture entirely the health of the U.S...
...One of the most critical underpinnings of the war in Vietnam was the AFL-CIO's support for its continuation...
...And, sure enough, it also holds 49.8% of a Japanese glass company, the hated competitor nation...
...Japanese firms have been highly dependent on U.S...
...V, No...
...Semiconductors: As their name implies, semiconductors are not full conductors of electricity (as is a piece of copper wire), but rather have properties midway between those of metals and insulators...
...Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment and Earnings...
...House of Representatives, Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Trade, Background Information and Complation of Materials on Items 807.00 and 806.30 of the Tariff Schedules of the United States (Washington, D.C.: U.S...
...Tilton, International Diffusion, 135...
...and Office, Computing and Accounting Machines (Washington, D.C.: GPO), 1975...
...24-27...
...offshore production are almost all characterized by their low wages, poor working conditions and the repression of organized labor...
...Korea Report, 7. 27...
...4. Pacific Basin Reports, June 15, 1971...
...1 4 Some capitalists may get more out of this campaign than others (since it is their products which are being purchased and their industries which are being protected), but what do the workers get out of it...
...As a region they have received more military aid from the United States than any other region between 1946 and 1975...
...25 What is another way of viewing these figures...
...4. For good background material on the origins of the electronics industry, see James M. Hund, "Electronics," in Max Hall, ed., Made in New York (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959), 243-325 . 5. Electronic News, January 10, 1977...
...See James S. Matles and James Higgins, Them and Us: Struggles of a Rank-and-File Union (Boston: Beacon Press), 1974...
...Well, there's Sprague Electric...
...worker to support a "strong" U.S...
...As we noted above, the majority of government R&D funds go to the largest producers and often enable them to reach a high level of production much more quickly than their competitors...
...In other words, the workers "allies" are firms which have exported U.S...
...Westinghouse signed its first licensing agreement with Mitsubishi in 1923 and General Electric has 24 licensing agreements with Toshiba...
...producers (particularly the smaller ones such as the COMPACT members), but will not help workers get their jobs back or assure them of the ones they now hold...
...Electronic News, March 21, 1977...
...Given the existence of abysmally low-wage areas abroad, there is absolutely no reason not to expect the electronics producers to continue to run away regardless of increased tariffs or quotas...
...IUE News, March 1977...
...Electronic News, February 16, 1976...
...X, No...
...manufacturers as good sites for their runaway shops since the wages are so low, the situation so controlled...
...3 4 All too often, companies have been able to break strikes in one country because they were able to rely on continued production from their factories in other countries...
...Compiled from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment and Earnings In the United States, 1909-1975, Bulletin 1312-10 (Washington, D.C.: Department of Labor), 1976...
...competitors...
...Ibid., 29...
...This, too, has proved successful during the limited times it was attempted...
...Many rank-and-file unionists have opposed this process but, as of yet, have been unable to stop it...
...Ibid...
...See, for example, Nat Snyderman, "See no quick return of offshore work," Electronic News, February 16, 1976...
...While it is beyond the scope of this article to discuss the complexities of trade wars, it is clear that the workers would face the greatest hardships in such a situation given their lack of mobility in relation to that of capital...
...Ibid...
...IUE workers supported Bolivian GE workers during a strike there in 1968, and the Autoworkers supported strike actions at Ford's Peruvian plants in the late 1960's...
...THE JAPANESE ARE COMING (OR ARE THEY...
...Electronic News, December 17, 1973...
...With trade protection, they see the opportunity to again raise their prices...
...Equalizing investment climates here and abroad, for example, so that no area would be more attractive than others, would act in this manner...
...government has begun to recognize the South Korean regime as highly repressive...
...Daniel J. Mitchell, Labor Issues of American International Trade and Investment, Policy Studies in Employment and Welfare No...
...Do workers at least benefit from lower prices on electronic consumer goods which have been produced in low-wage areas...
...What type of allies do the workers have in COMPACT...
...Thus, the Japanese calculator industry, for example, was almost totally dependent for many years on purchases of integrated circuits and other semiconductor devices from U.S...
...Who's Who in the Zaibatsu," Pacific Imperialism Notebook, December 1971-January 1972, 72...
...WHAT IS TO BE DONE...
...Bureau of the Census, Census of Manufacturers, 1972...
...Integrated Circuits: The combination of active and passive components on a single substrate (or "chip...
...In 1974, Motorola sold its TV division (Quasar) to Matsushita, the world's largest consumer electronics firm (which markets its Panasonic brand in the United States...
...22 Indonesia, ruled by Suharto since March 1967, suffered through one of the bloodiest massacres of leftists on record following a coup in 1965...
...on the Dominican Republic see "Smoldering Conflict: Dominican Republic, 1965-1975," NACLA's Latin America and Empire Report, Vol...
...jobs for years but are now shedding21 crocodile tears over unemployment in the TV industry...
...companies (Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Nippon Electric, Oki Electric, Yamatake-Honeywell) received the lion's share of the loans...
...II, No...
...Running away to produce products destined for the U.S...
...Electronic News, May 20, 1974.25 11...
...the taxpayer...
...Singapore's government has been called socialist, but, according to Roger Freeman of Stanford University's conservative Hoover Institute, "it is hard to conceive of a country whose economic policies are more decisively grounded in laissez-faire, and whose government leaves the economy more clearly to private enterprise, free and untrammelled by limitations, restrictions or controls...
...bankers have not been shy about pouring their depositors' money into Japanese electronics firms, either...
...33...
...9 (November 1974), Fred Hirsch, An Analysis of Our AFL-CIO Role in Latin America (San Jose: Fred Hirsch), 1974, Ronald Radosh, American Labor and United States Foreign Policy (New York: Vintage Books), 1969, and "The AFL-CIA Goes on Safari," Counter-Spy, Vol...
...According to both industry and labor sources, the answer-is often no...
...Business Week, June 7, 1976...
...But, to the extent that trade union bureaucrats actively support this foreign policy, they ultimately share responsibility for its consequences: repression abroad, unemployment and wage cuts at home...
...While this provides only a rapid overview of loans from U.S...
...Electronic News, December 6, 1976...
...A number of Secretariats, for example, were demonstrated to have actively participated in the destabilization efforts which resulted in the Chilean coup of 1973...
...Business Week, April 26, 1976...
...Aside from stock ownership, a web of licensing agreements ties U.S...
...Electronic News, November 8, 1976...
...Richard W. Moxon, Offshore Production In the Less Developed Countries: A Case Study of Multinationality In the Electronics Industry, New York University Graduate School of Business Administration, Institute of Finance, The Bulletin...
...prices...
...24 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976), 53-4...
...By raising the battle cry of foreign competition, the trade union bureaucrats also draw attention from another important issue: foreign completion often isn't very foreign...
...Organization for Economic Co operation and Development, Gaps in Technology: Electronic Components (Paris: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 1968), 68...
...Industrial Outlook 1977 with Projections to 1985 (Washington, D.C.: U.S...
...And, second, a tariff increase of 20-25% is still acceptable when one can pay 0l an hour instead of S5.00 Just as the argument that foreign imports are the fundamental reason for job losses at home is misleading, so too the strategy designed to correct this-tariff barriers and quotas-is potentially dangerous to the working class...
...24 FOOTNOTES ELECTRONICS: THE GLOBAL INDUSTRY 1. Electronic News, February 14, 1977...
...electric/electronics firms, General Electric...
...multi-nationals...
...War...
...The reports analyzed all the companies which produced those products and were useful in helping local unions win better contracts during bargaining sessions...
...Please contact (714) 549-9945...
...APPENDIX A GLOSSARY Active Components: Components which affect or modify an electrical signal through amplification, modulation, generation, etc...
...3. Richard W. Moxon, Offshore Production in the Less Developed Countries: A Case Study of Multinationals In the Electronics Industry...
...Passive Components: Components which do not affect the electrical signal...
...At present, Japanese electric/electronic firms are highly integrated into their U.S...
...And who is an important shareholder of Mitsubishi, the other Japanese electronic giant...
...workers of jobs-they argue-and only higher tariffs or import quotas (i.e...
...New York Times, April 3, 1977...
...In the following section we will discuss how an aggressive U.S...
...Electronic News, March 31, 1975...
...5 Although Japan has imposed fairly strict regulations on foreign ownership of local companies, U.S...
...MFG.ASSY facility managed by specialist in all wirewound components No limits to assy Flagstaff...
...As employers begin to run away to these countries, the chickens come home to roost: workers here suffer high unemployment and a consequent pressure on their overall wage levels...
...National Credit Office, Electronic Marketing Directory, vii...
...In this section we have tried to show that a policy of tariffs and import quotas will most likely benefit numerous U.S...
...7. Moody's Industrial Manual (New York: Moody's Investor Service), 1976...
...GPO, January 1977), 334...
...Pacific Basin Reports, June 1970, 37...
...2, (Feb...
...See, for example, "Argentina: AIFLD Losing its Grip," NACLA's Latin America & Empire Report, Vol...
...Pacific Imperialism Notebook, Vol...
...They have formed more than 15 associations and ad hoc committees to lobby in Washington and testify before Congressional committees...
...They can hire employees in the lowest labor market of the world at the22 "-'ATS' W-T I LIKE - ,REE COMPETITIVE L-BOR0 SIDOSTRY ATTRACTED To TAIWAR BY U 37 4 PER CouR SktLLED cAGERPATE5 same time as they are able to sell products of that labor in the highest price market, the U.S.A...
...See NACLA's "Argentina: AIFLD Losing its Grip...
...For average manufacturing costs, see Wickham Skinner and David Rogers, Manufacturing Policy in the Electronics Industry: A Casebook of Major Production Problems (Homewood, Illinois: Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1968), 44...
...ITT holds 3.8% of Nippon Electric's shares and 6.7% of the shares of Sumitomo Electric Industries...
...Tilton, International Diffusion, 16 and OECD, Gaps, 44...
...This is not to say that the workers in the color TV industry do not face a very serious situation of unemployment, but rather that, by teaming up with the very companies which have caused the unemployment in the first place, the trade union bureaucrats are assuring that the workers will be the ones to be dumped on...
...semiconductor industry is particularly illustrative in this respect since it was domestic, not foreign, competition which triggered the runaway desire of semiconductor manufacturers...
...Electronic News, March 31, 1975...
...In 1969, for example, the Steelworkers and the International Metalworkers Federation prepared reports for all Western Hemisphere unions working in aluminum, iron ore, steel and copper...
...unions should militantly support the right of foreign workers to organize in their own countries...
...trade protection) will win them back...
...In Chile before the 1973 coup, right-wing sign painters recalled the murder of an estimated 500,000 Indonesian leftists with wall paintings proclaiming "Jakarta is Coming' " 24...
...Electronic News, April 4, 1977...
...The challenge of import competition has ostensibly brought workers and employers together in many industries...
...2 (February 1974), 41...
...IUE News, March 1977...
...While the focus of this Report has not been to develop a strategy for the working class, we will mention a few ways in which increased solidarity and action between workers in this country and abroad can further the interests of both...
...See "Electronic Runaways" in "Hit & Run", NACLA's Latin America and Empire Report, Volume IX, #5, (May-June, 1975), 14...
...Abel, president of the United Steel Workers and head of the AFL-CIO's Industrial Union Department and AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, Lane Kirkland, recently berated Carter for not seeking increased tariffs on shoe imports, and Jacob Sheinkman of the Amalgamated Clothing And Textile Workers Union said that the ACTWU and the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union would hold a national work stoppage on April 13, 1977 to "dramatize their concern over the President's action...
...Inc Box 986...
...2 1 Sprague, a Massachusetts-based firm, began to run away from the unions in the late 1960's...
...AID, Statistics and Reports Division, Office of Financial Management, U.S...
...Harry Braverman, Labor and Monopoly Capital (New York: Monthly Review, 1974), 126...
...Our analysis of the electronics industry indicates that the answer to these questions is no...
...IUE News, November 1976...
...Transistors, diodes and rectifiers are all semiconductors...
...Electronic News, January 8, 1973...
...One of these is the campaign to repeal Items 806.30 and 807.00 of the Tariff Schedule...
...As of last year, it operated in 16 countries including Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, Mexico, the Virgin Islands, Spain and Scotland...
...Fortune, November 1975...
...integration has made it impossible for Japan to take firm measures to curtail imports...
...1968), 108...
...In a mounting campaign, leaders of the AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions in the shoe, textile, apparel, electronics and steel industry have pressured the government to build up the walls of protection around their industries (industries which are already among the most protected...
...Ferdinand Marcos has ruled the Philippines by martial law since September 1972 and has carried out a vicious war against insurgents in many parts of the country...
...X, No...
...COMPACT sought to join together those unions and corporations most affected by Japanese imports...
...Electronic Industries Association, 1976 Electronic Market Data Book (Washington, D.C.: EIA, 1976), 101...
...In 1972 they amounted to almost S5 billion, 25% of all industrial R&D expenditures and second only to the S5.01 billion spent on aircraft and missiles...
...1 (January-March 1974), 3. 26...
...market then would be more costly...
...Moxon, Offshore Production, 55...
...3 0 Of this, slightly more than 50% of the money came from the government (i.e...
...Janet Salaff, " 'Modern Times' in Hong Kong," Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, Vol...
...Low wages are the mainstay of capitalist electronics producers and these firms will continue to seek low wages as long as low-wage areas remain...
...Otherwise we wouldn't be making the move...
...expert We have substantial extra capacity for assembly work, preferably watch modules...
...2. "Capital's Flight: The Apparel Industry Moves South," NACLA's Latin America & Empire Report, Vol...
...In the first place, links must be forged with workers in other countries, perhaps beginning in those countries most likely to host runaway firms...
...Large Scale Integration: A process which places thousands of micro-miniaturized transistors on a 1 tiny sliver of silicon...
...In late 1971 Texas Instruments bought out Sony's semiconductor operations and now owns 100% of Texas Instrument Japan, Ltd.6 "*Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation has a 50-50 joint venture with TDK Electronics Co...
...Pacific Imperialism Notebook, Vol...
...1 (Spring 1973), 23...
...According to industry sources, only the three largest color TV producers, Zenith, RCA and GE, are turning a profit on color TVs...
...Nearly every one is ruled by a dictator which represses the labor movement...
...Pacifle Research & World Empire Telegram, October 1975...
...As such, the points are in obvious contradiction with the interests of the capitalists and,' thus, will not be easy to achieve...
...on Haiti, see Michael D. Boggs and James Ellenberger, "Worker Exploitation Dons a New Face in Haiti," American Federationlst (January 1973), 17-24...
...Their first act was to petition the International Tariff Commission on the grounds that color TV imports were "destroying, or threatening to destroy, business and jobs" in the United States...
...8. IUE News, September 1976...
...Forbes, January 1, 1974...
...1 (January 1976), 24-7...
...2 (February 1974), 36-44...
...VI, No...
...The "true" components of the electronics industry (as opposed to electrical...
...export industries...
...This is not to say that these laws are unimportant to the manufacturers...
...General Instrument Corporation, Form 10-K, (Washington, D.C.: Securities and Exchange Commission, February 29, 1976...
...Moreover, there are serious problems with a strategy which seeks to restore U.S...
...IUE News, January 1976 and Wall Street Journal, December 7, 1970...
...Hund, "Electronics," 244...
...2 (Feb...
...Matsushita, which is closely tied to NV Philips, is not listed at all, nor is Sony...
...Hearings before the Ninety-Fourth Congress, Second Session, March 24-25, 1976 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1976), 33...
...On the other hand, both Matsushita and Sony are listed on the New York Stock Exchange and thereby can raise capital in this country...
...2. U.S...
...Electronic News, November 12, 1972...
...They are solids (usually silicon crystals) as opposed to vacuums (as in the older tubes), hence, "solid state...
...Have labor-intensive jobs "been virtually destroyed by imports...
...the heart of micro-miniaturization in electronics...
...Pacific Imperialism Notebook, Vol...
...workers support such a foreign policy...
...Electronics firms have been fighting tooth and nail to keep 806/807...
...Ibid...
...Other legislative measures could deal more with the reality of capital's mobility and help to stem job losses here without sacrificing the interests of foreign workers...
...Or, in the same light, could Texas Instruments have "resolved" a strike of 1,500 production workers at its Curacao semiconductor plant by threatening to run away if it knew that it couldn't find lower wage areas anywhere...
...8. Pacific Basin Reports (June 15, 1971), 164...
...1 (January-March 1974), 4. 47...
...electric/electronic giant...
...IBEW Journal' THE "IMPORT" QUESTION Faced with a massive loss of jobs (and union members) in the last fifteen years, the leadership of the AFL-CIO has focused on the issue of imports as the cutting edge of their problems...
...In terms of military aid alone (S16 billion), the total is more than all the wages paid to production workers in all branches of electronics in 1970, 1971, and 1972 combined.2 6 Should U.S...
...firms were awarded over 5,000 semiconductor patents between 1952 and 1968 while Japanese firms received only 83.3 And this had ramifications on the electronics industry as a whole since semiconductor technology is at the heart of almost all electronic innovations...
...OFFSHORE MANUFACTURING INSTANT PLANT - EL SALVADOR FREE ZONE SHARE THE BENEFITS Labor...
...Forbes, January 1, 1977...
...IBEW Journal, Febraury 1977, 36...
...D W No need to move your engr New 7500 sq ft Bolin...
...Seven major Far Eastern offshore producers have received over S16 billion in U.S...
...As one report noted in 1971, "the dependence of the Japanese calculator industry on U.S...
...Capital will not settle down just because a law changes...
...runaways and breathing life into domestic electronics production...
...U.S...
...Control Data Corporation, Korea Report, 12...
...AZ 86002(602) 779-0062 capability VERY LOW RATES also for Short WATCH MOOULE ASSEMBLY runs Send DRG and SAMPLES for quote toRO WATCH MOULE ASSEMBLY INT P0 Box 853 PORT -AU-PRINCE HAITI...
...3 (March 1977...
...Fortune, May 1976...
...With 806/807 repealed, workers still could not sit back and breathe a sigh of relief that their jobs were secure at last since the legislation only would indirectly affect the dynamic of capital mobility...
...See, for example, Business Week, October 11, 1976 and July 5, 1976...
...By the time the petition reached the ITC, it had been signed by two more firms (not COMPACT members), GTE Sylvania and Zenith...
...P.R...
...Control Data Corporation, Korea Report, February 1976, 7. 26...
...THE JOB YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN 1. IBEW Journal, February 1977, 36...
...economic and military aid to these anti-worker governments...
...16 The largest part of these imports originated in Japan, which supplied the United States with 41% of its total electronic imports in 1975.17 The item most severely affected by Japanese imports is color televisions...
...There is much behind what COMPACT charges...
...The same would be true if wage rates in U.S...
...1819 Following the destruction of Japanese and German industry in World War II, and fueled by huge amounts of government research and development funds, the U.S...
...the seven other TV or TV tube makers were reportedly in the red...
...Lee Kuan Yew's ruling party withdrew-under pressure-from the Socialist International in 1976...
...NACLA interview in Hit & Run, 13...
...Ibid...
...Newport each...
...The lynchpin of this argument is support for our allies abroad, particularly in such hot spots as the Far East...
...Industry Series: Communication Equipment, Including Radio and TV and Electronic Components and Accessories, and Office, Computing and Accounting Machines (Washington, D.C.: GPO), 1975...
...9. Babson, "The Multinational Corporation," 23-4...
...IX, No...
...2 9 Finally, there is the question of government sponsored research and development, another cost carried by the worker...
...Overseas Loans and Grants, Obligations and Loan Authorization, July 1, 1945-June 30, 1973 (Washington, D.C.: AID), 1974...
...Military Assistance Programs," in Latin America & Empire Report, Vol...
...With what results...
...Computation based on U.S...
...In this way, a much larger portion of the working class would be forced to pay for the protection of those capitalists who can no longer compete on an equal footing with their rivals...
...3. U.S...
...It even held a minority share in a Japanese semiconductor firm...
...semiconductor technology for years, particularly as concerns integrated circuits and large scale integration (the so-called "computer-on-a-chip" device...
...5. Steve Babson, "The Multinational Corporation and Labor," URPE Review, Vol...
...33 Up to the present, however, few unions if any have done this with the major runaway host countries...
...A few years ago the president of Admiral International (now a part of Rockwell International) said that assembling complete color TV sets on Taiwan "won't affect pricing stateside, but it should improve the company's profit structure...
...7. Simon Ramo, "Revolution in Electronics," Comments on Argentine Trade (September 1976), 5. 8. Pacific Basin Reports, August 1973, 171...
...Electronic News, March 31, 1975...
...The principle of international worker solidarity should be the cornerstone of such organizing drives...
...Other international organizations such as the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the International Labor Organization belong in this category as well...
...Yet, are foreign imports the key to this problem...
...2 The IUE, IBEW and nine other unions in related fields are awaiting Presidential action on their petition to impose higher tariffs or quotas on the import of color televisions...
...firms would raise their prices behind the protective tariff...
...98-99 (July 1974), 60...
...2. New York Times, April 6, 1977...
...Rather they impede the flow of electricity (resistors), store electricity (capacitors), etc...
...Korea...
...In the first place, U.S...
...producers have been forced to lower their prices (and their profits) on some items...
...workers are heavily taxed by the government to pay for exorbitant amounts of economic and military aid to repressive governments in the Far East...
...Business Week, March 1, 1976...
...Business Week, July 4, 1970...
...What would these consequences be...
...Electronic News, March 31, 1975...
...Thus, although not solving workers' problems, repeal of 806/807 would raise the price of running away for the manufacturers...
...ELECTRONICS RUNAWAYS: THE VIEW FROM ABROAD 1. Electronic News, September 18, 1972...
...New York Times, March 20, 1976...
...Bolstered by this tremendous amount of aid, these governments have been able to repress their own working class movements, destroying or controlling the unions and banning political dissent...
...7. Los Angeles Times, November 19, 1967...
...Again we ask, whom does this policy serve...
...Paul Jennings, "Your Questions Answered on the Import Avalanche," IUE publication, no date...
...Electronic News, March 29, 1976...
...Tilton, International Diffusion, 147...
...I.W...
...Business Week, May 31, 1976...
...These points are only a few of the measures which should go into a strategy designed to protect the interests of workers and deal with the real issue behind runaways and foreign competition: the capitalists' drive for higher profits...
...banks had more than S230 million in loans outstanding to 14 Japanese electric/electronics firms...
...Philips Development Corporation, a subsidiary of the Dutch giant, NV Philips...
...Westinghouse, the other U.S...
...This may come as a surprise, but the largest single block of shares of Toshiba, one of Japan's largest electronics firms, is owned by...one of the largest U.S...
...Consumer electronics rang up a whopping S1.7 billion trade deficit in 1975 and a S3.3 billion deficit in 1976...
...OECD, Gaps, 23, and Fortune, November 1975...
...We are Korea based electronics company WE LOOK ALSO with 20 K & S ultrasonic & TC bonders & FOR AGENTS 200 skilled workers with 2 yrs...
...Electronic News, June 4, 1973...
...Unions must demand an end to all U.S...
...What can workers do to keep the runaways from running...
...Once the flow of dollars stops, workers abroad will be able to take care of their own business...
...These countries are seized upon by U.S...
...dominance of semiconductor technology forced open Japanese doors to U.S...
...3 1 Many of the International Trade Secretariats as well have been proven to be allies of the CIA and willing participants in events which ultimately have had very serious consequences for workers...
...Hund, "Electronics," 284-5...
...1 5 At the same time a suit was brought to the Justice Department charging the Japanese manufacturers with "dumping," that is, selling their products here for less than they sell them in Japan or any third country in order to drive out their U.S...
...The issue is a critical one...
Vol. 11 • April 1977 • No. 4
