Union tries to refocus jobs fury, Labor leaders realize the realities of NAFTA

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-sun-front-jim-robinson-uswmar16,0,1610079.story

By Stephen Franklin
March 16, 2008

GARY - Jim Robinson has a meeting coming up that he knows could be a little risky. He is going to introduce a group of Mexican steelworkers to United Steelworkers members in downstate Granite City. Both groups work for the same company, ASF-Keystone Inc.

He knows the visit by the Mexican workers could stir up old grudges since some American workers still harbor feelings of insecurity years after Granite City's steel foundry was closed and reopened and plants were shut in East Chicago and Alliance, Ohio, wiping out hundreds of jobs as work was shifted to Mexico.

Yet Robinson, director of the USW District 7, is counting on the downstate steelworkers to share the view he and other USW leaders reached a few years ago.

"We want the people in Granite City to understand that the workers in Mexico are not their problem," he explains.

Amid rising fury over the flight of jobs to Mexico, perceived to be a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Robinson's words might seem like blasphemy in a community where steady, good-paying steel jobs are almost a memory.

But he is no friend of NAFTA.

FULL story at link.