Kerry offers plan to reduce loss of US jobs

3.00pm

CLEVELAND - Democratic White House hopeful John Kerry on Wednesday blamed President George W Bush's policies for funnelling American jobs overseas and proposed to discourage the practice by requiring US companies to give advance notice of plans to send work abroad.

In a speech prepared for delivery at the University of Toledo in hard-hit Ohio, a key state among 10 that hold nominating contests on Tuesday, Kerry said he could not promise that "all the rivers of steel will flow again" but offered a slate of ideas for stemming the tide of job losses.

"I'm not going to pledge the impossible, " Kerry told about two dozen hard-hatted workers at AK-ISG Steel in Cleveland. "But I can fight to make sure you've got a level playing field."

The four-term Massachusetts senator and Democratic front-runner accused the Bush administration of being unwilling to enforce trade provisions and failing to create jobs in the United States.

Kerry blasted Bush's economic policies and called the president "a walking contradiction" who promised his massive tax cuts would create four million jobs and had, instead, lost three million.

"I think when you're 7 million jobs in the hole, step number one is pretty simple: stop digging," he said in his prepared remarks.

North Carolina Senator John Edwards, Kerry's major rival in the race to see who will challenge Bush on November 2, has wagered his campaign on the issue of outsourcing and the loss of jobs under trade pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Both Democrats have lavished attention on Ohio and other "Super Tuesday" states such as Georgia, Minnesota and New York -- that have suffered big manufacturing job losses. Kerry launched a new round of television ads on Wednesday in Ohio and upstate New York in which he vows to create jobs.

Kerry voted for NAFTA in 1993 but has since said he would order a 120-day review of all trade pacts. He laid out specific guidelines for companies wanting to send jobs overseas, including at least three months' advance notice for affected employees as well as notification of the Labor Department, state agencies and local government officials.

In addition, he would require the federal government to compile statistics on off-shored jobs and report to Congress annually and disclosure of how many jobs were going where and why. Also, he would ensure that federal contracts were not being outsourced overseas.

A decorated Vietnam war veteran who has campaigned on his combat record, Kerry said it was time "to put patriotism back in the driver's seat."

"We need to encourage a corporate culture where companies provide a fair break for workers and a fair return for shareholders instead of a fast buck and a false bottom line," he said. "Where corporations make profits the old-fashioned way -- by building our economy, not bilking our people."

Kerry also has proposed rolling back Bush's tax cuts for Americans who make more than US$200,000 a year, raising the minimum wage, cutting the cost of health care, closing tax loopholes that encourage companies to move jobs overseas and cracking down on trade violations.

The winner of 18 out of 20 Democratic primaries and caucuses so far, Kerry is the clear leader in money and momentum and has a chance next week of closing in on the 2,162 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.

- REUTERS