Trade Act travesty

By Published by The Editorial Board

Published: July 5, 2008

As Dan River Inc. dwindled from Danville’s largest private employer to a part of the city’s industrial history, its former workers have learned tough lessons about the federal government’s “help” for those who lost their jobs to foreign competition.

Gaps in the Trade Act inspired the Danville Regional Foundation to award a grant to Danville Community College and Piedmont Community College in Yanceyville, N.C., to help people who weren’t helped enough by the Trade Act’s benefits.

Now comes word that 150 former Dan River Inc. employees, who most certainly lost their jobs to foreign competition, have had their Trade Act benefits denied.

“The fact that all manufacturing has ceased in Danville should not prevent these employees from obtaining benefits they’re entitled to receive,” said Calvin Barnhardt, Dan River Inc.’s vice president for human resources. “We were devastated to learn that the Department of Labor had rejected the petition.”

The company is appealing the decision, and U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, R-5th, is working on the case.

Trade Act benefits help those who lost their jobs to foreign competition with education and health insurance benefits and some income assistance.

American manufacturing workers need the Trade Act because their government continues to negotiate free trade agreements with governments around the world. Since the federal government makes it easier for companies to build their products in foreign countries for less, the logic of the Trade Act is that the government will step in and help displaced American workers through the inevitable transition.

But nothing ever works out as planned. Even the letter informing Dan River that the Trade Act benefits were denied came postage due. For now, 150 people who should be receiving government benefits their tax dollars financed, to help them survive the job loss that their tax dollars financed, find themselves ignored.

As long as this country continues to pursue global trade, it has a duty to ensure that the American workers who lose their jobs get all the help they need.

That hasn’t happened for those 150 Dan River workers — yet.