BUY AMERICAN for CHRISTMAS !

One Union Worker from Omaha Says: We Need ‘Made in America’
by Robert Struckman,
Nov 28, 2011

Bill Redler of Omaha, Neb., knows both the hard times of the American construction worker today and the right way forward.

The union plumber, whose first child is on the way, tries not to spend a penny on anything, unless it’s made in America.

“I’ve gotten militant about it, and it turns out that it’s not that hard. We’ve got to quit buying from China. We’ve got to start taxing companies if they want to send jobs to China and then sell products here. That’s the bottom line. We need to be building everything here….Made in America,” he said. Redler may be a plumber (and a major fan of the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers) who has worked on just about anything that involves pipes, but he knows that without manufacturing jobs, America’s economy has no solid base.“There’s no work in this town right now,” he said. “It’s been like that for about three years. I’d work for a while, get laid off for about a month. It was hit and miss…here and there….Right now, there are 115 guys sitting.” Redler’s most recent layoff was more than a month ago. He’ll soon travel to Washington to fight for jobs and an extension of unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless. A record number of workers have been unable to find jobs for 99 weeks or more…more than 6 million. He hopes he won’t find himself in that situation, but he knows it could happen. And he knows it’s time for action.“We know how to organize and demand what’s right, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Redler said.

Fiat Lux