Machinists Union President Welcomes Hillary Clinton’s Plan to Restore U.S. Manufacturing

December 8, 2015 | By Business Wire News

WASHINGTON

The International President of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) today said Hillary Clinton’s plans to revitalize the U.S. manufacturing sector marked the first serious strategic policy proposal of the 2016 presidential campaign.

“If we are to have a real economic recovery in this country, we must take concrete steps to pump new life into our manufacturing sector,” said IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger. “Hillary Clinton has demonstrated once again that she has the political foresight and will to take on the key challenge of reigniting the jobs engine that built the American middle class.”

Calling it the defining economic challenge of our time, Clinton last week proposed a five-year, $275 billion plan to create jobs by reinvesting in advanced manufacturing and production, while opposing policies that allow large corporations to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

In a Dec. 7 New York Times editorial, “How I’d Rein in Wall Street,” Clinton addresses cynical efforts to roll back critical consumer and financial protections enacted in the wake of the Great Recession: “The proper role of Wall Street is to help Main Street grow and prosper,” wrote Clinton. “When our financial sector works the right way, it helps families buy their first homes, entrepreneurs start and grow small businesses and hardworking Americans save for retirement.”

The IAM is among the nation’s largest and most diverse industrial trade unions, with nearly 600,000 members in aerospace, manufacturing, transportation, shipbuilding, woodworking, electronics and the federal sector. Visit www.goiam.org for more information about the IAM.