Dissenters Assemble at Hayworth's Office

SOMERS, N.Y. - December 26, aka Boxing Day, saw a demonstration by several dozen people at the Somers office of Congresswoman Nan Hayworth (R,C,I NY 19th District) concerning the Currency Reform Fair Trade Act. The act is intended to “hold China accountable for its job-killing currency manipulation,” according to The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) blog.

Sparrow Tobin, Vice President of the Hudson-Catskill Central Labor Council, said, “Boxing Day is the day that millions of Americans return the gifts they don’t like. We are here to give Hayworth what she has given her constituents: a big box of nothing.” Many of the protesters held empty boxes wrapped in gift paper.

Tobin continued, “America needs to get tough on China. China’s unfair trade practices and currency manipulation is hurting our manufacturing base, hurting our economy, and costing Americans jobs.

“Congresswoman Hayworth must go beyond simply ‘saying’ she supports American manufacturing. She must support American manufacturing by co-sponsoring the bill.” 

North Salem resident, Howard Hellwinkel, owner of a chair manufacturing business that imports parts and materials from China, Taiwan, Poland and Italy explains that China depends upon worldwide trade in order to raise its standard of living above the poverty level. If trade were to dry up, civil disorder would result. “China has ways of retaliating,” he said. “For example, they could sell our Treasury Bills en masse. The U.S. is too commercially interwound with China to affect any change in Chinese currency manipulations.

“Besides, if we did not deal with China it does not mean the jobs would come back here. They would go to Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia. Now Miramar has opened up as well.”

Hellwinkel considers it “the natural order of civilization’s progress. Our cost of labor has increased because we are an advanced nation and also because of union pressures on the wage scale.”

In the case of Hellwinkel’s business, he explains, some parts and materials are purchased abroad but the manufacturing process is completed in America. “For example, we may buy a chair-back in China, but upholster it here.” He estimates that his business feeds 30 to 40 American families per year. 

Amanda Maddox, Deputy Press Secretary to Nan Hayworth, spoke on her behalf. "Hayworth’s first priority as a congresswoman is to get Hudson Valley residents back to work. She has worked at lifting regulations on small businesses in the Hudson Valley,” to foster expansion and employment. “She has been involved in introducing 28 separate pieces of legislation aimed at growing the economy and creating jobs.” They are in different stages of advancement through the system.

Click here to watch a video of the protest.

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