Low Prices and Solid growth

Analysis:

This is a brief story about a number of local factories that had outsourced jobs to Mexico and it included two different perspectives. One is of a local worker who is on unemployment after being laid off by a local furniture manufacturer. This man is shown making a number of statements on-air, in which he is lamenting his lost job. The reporter than notes that he will most likely have to find work in a different field as a lower wage. The other person shown speaking in the story is Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan who is reported as saying that outsourcing has helped keep inflation in check and that this has resulted in a “cycle of low prices and solid growth”. No more clarification or verification is made of Greenspans comments. Given the loss of jobs in Michigan, it would seem reasonable for a reporter to ask in response to Greenspans comments, solid growth for whom, and whether outsourcing jobs is a fair trade off for keeping inflation down. Another interesting point in the piece is a brief mantion that NAFTA, the North American Trade Agreement, is supposed to provide funds for retraining of workers whose jobs are outsourced. Not reported in the story is that fact that NAFTA was also responsible for making it easier for these jobs to be outsourced in the first place.

Story:

WZZM 13 Reporter – You’ve probably never heard of Gemtron. But you probably touch it’s product everyday. This company makes the glass spill proof shelves found inside nearly every refrigerator. And now, forty Holland Gemtron jobs will be cut. Sent to Mexico at the insistence of large customers like Electrolux and Amana. Because these jobs are going to Mexico, as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement the workers who will lose their jobs will receive money so they can go back to school or learn new skills.

Dirk DeYoung – I’m on extended unemployment now.

Reporter – Dirk DeYoung crafted wood furnature for twenty-five years.

DeYoung – I had a solid job all along, then boom.

Reporter – Many of those years at Sligh until the company said last winter the work could be done more cheaply outside the USA.

DeYoung – Just one day its, you know, you’re done.

Reporter – DeYoung spoke to us on the same day Alan Greenspan made his final presentation to congress where he said that outsourcing has helped keep inflation in check.

Greenspan – The result has been a (inaudible) cycle of low prices and solid growth.

Reporter – The state has helped Dirk DeYoung look for work at the same facility that Gemtron workers will likely come to know well. But after nine months DeYoung has yet to find a new job. DeYoungs job councilor says he may need to find work in a new field, one that likely will pay less. In the news room Peter Ross WZZM 13 news.