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Stolen Dreams

I am seated in Sulley's Pub on the northwest side of Galesburg and Kathy Ward, who is sitting across from me, is crying. She has just finished telling me how she had miscarried her baby one week after learning that the Maytag Plant, where she has worked for the past eight years, would be closing and moving to Reynosa, Mexico.

Kathy Ward fights back the tears as she questions the reasons behind Maytag's closing and ponders an uncertain future.

Seated next to Kathy is her husband, Scott. He doesn't react to his wife's tears. Instead his eyes remain locked on my own in a half-defiant, half-angry stare. The New York Times and ABC News have already been to this town, asking pretty much the same questions as I, making his wife relive the sadness. I think I understand the reason behind his stare.

Kathy and Scott Ward face leaving family and friends as the Maytag plant closing forces the couple to join the migration of workers leaving Galesburg in search of employment.

For the past 14 years Scott has also worked at the Maytag plant. The couple both grew up in the area. Their families all live close by. Scott tells me how they have sent resumes out to factories and plants in Mississippi and Arkansas, trying to prepare for the rest of their lives. "There are no more jobs in Galesburg," he tells me. "Maytag was pretty much the last large employer."

The beautiful Gospel Church in Galesburg marks the town square. Settled in 1835, George Washington Gale purchased 17 acres of land and settled his Christian community, far away from the perceived "sinful" elements of the era.

Earlier in the day, a conversation with Business Representatives of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) confirmed what Scott was telling me. In the 1970's and 80's, the local IAM union had about 8,000 members from five major employers in Galesburg. When Maytag completes its closing within the next 21 months, the Local's entire membership will total about 15. With so few members, the Local Union will be dissolved and the few remaining members merged into another IAM Local (or "Lodge" as they refer to it) somewhere in western Illinois.

Kathy, who has regained some of her composure, leans across the table towards me. "Just tell me what it is we did wrong," she pleads. "We gave Maytag everything they asked for and produced a product that was rated number one by Consumer Reports. How can they do this to us?"

The tears come again.

Galesburg, Illinois, with a population of 34,000, resides on the western prairies about 50 miles east of the Mississippi River. George Washington Gale, a minister of the Gospel from upper New York State, founded the town. Gale wanted to create a Christian community sequestered from "river people" and any of the other sinful elements he perceived of the day. In 1835, settling on what was then a desolate prairie expanse, Gale purchased 17 acres of land and, along with 25 settlers, constructed what became known as "Log City", named after the log cabins they constructed.

The Galesburg City Hall is reminiscent of 1920's prairie architecture.

Today, Galesburg appears all too much like the small factory towns and agricultural hubs sprinkled throughout America's heartland. On first glance a visitor might describe it as "AnyTown, USA". It has a Main Street that stretches east and west, a town square marked by a large church, and the old orange brick façade buildings crowned with ornate tin flashing, which line the streets of the business district.

It's only after slowing your pace through the town that you may start to notice the empty storefronts, peeling and fading paint and the general absence of people that mark Galesburg as another small American town in distress. You may also notice the irony in one of the largest and most prominent storefronts on Main Street having been converted over to an antiques emporium, dealing with relics of the past in a town without a future.

Maytag's departure will impact many other businesses in the town where for sale signs already adorn industrial and commercial properties.

I had come to Galesburg to write a story about NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement that was ushered into effect 10 years ago. It is that agreement that has prompted Maytag to close its plant in Galesburg and move to Reynosa, Mexico. On October 11th, 2002, the 1,600 employees of the Maytag plant in Galesburg were notified in a one-page statement by Bill Beer, the President of Maytag Appliances, that the plant would close by late 2004 because "?we (Maytag) believe that it's not possible for the production of side-by-side and top-mount refrigerators here in Galesburg to become competitively viable in today's extremely competitive refrigeration market?" That notice was placed into a yellow manila envelope and given to the employees. They were then told to take the remainder of the day off.

As more families leave Galesburg in search of work, store owners and small businesses shutter their doors.

"As we left," Scott says, "we saw police cars on the corners around the plant. I guess they thought we would riot or something," he says, shaking his head at the absurdity of it. "All of us have too much pride in what we do to do anything like that," he says. "Until the last one of us leaves that plant, we are going to continue to turn out the best products in the world."

I ask Scott and Kathy if they are going to apply for training under NAFTA's Transitional Adjustment Assistance (TAA). The Clinton administration and Washington legislators had, at the eleventh hour, added the TAA to the NAFTA package. Under TAA, a worker who loses their job as a result of NAFTA may obtain government sponsored retraining in another employable profession.

Aaron Kemp, a 7-year employee of Maytag, also serves as the Education and Training Director for the employee's union.

"I know I can't get work in another factory," Scott says. "I was thinking of training to become a computer programmer or something computer related," he tells me, a hint of uncertainty in his voice. "They told us that that is where the jobs are," he concludes.

The "they" that told him this is a transitional group on-site at the Maytag plant, working to advise employees of their options under TAA. Earlier, in a conversation with IAM representatives, I had been told that this group was advising the workers that it would be easy to find employment in the computer industry or the medical industry.

"I was thinking of training in the medical profession," Kathy tells me. "I really don't want to work in that environment, but what else is there?" she asks.

I ask them both what NAFTA meant to them when it was first being proposed years earlier.

"I don't remember hearing anything about it," Kathy says.

"I remember them saying it was a farmer thing," Scott replied. "It was suppose to be good for the farmers and that was a good thing," he concludes.

Doug Dennison, Vice-President of the Maytag employee's Local IAM Union is a 19-year employee at the plant.

Whether NAFTA is actually a good thing for farmers is a matter of debate. According to a June, 2001 report by Public Citizen, a not-for-profit public interest group, the U.S. world trade surplus in agricultural products declined 29.6% and the U.S. NAFTA trade surplus in agricultural products declined 71% during the first seven years of NAFTA. The same report states that "wheat farmers in the Midwestern and Plains states, ranchers in Montana, Texas and other states; vegetable, flower and fruit growers in California; lumber mill owners in Louisiana, Arkansas and Washington; vegetable growers in Florida; chicken farmers nationwide and others have suffered declining commodity prices and farm income while a flood of NAFTA imports outpaced U.S. exports to Canada and Mexico." At the same time the Public Citizen report was issued, the U.S. Trade Representative, a position within the White House, issued a "fact sheet" entitled: "NAFTA Good For U.S. Farmers", which reported that since NAFTA was approved, U.S. agriculture exports to Mexico had nearly doubled.

The President of IAM Local Lodge 2063, Dave Bevard, is a 30-year employee at the Maytag plant in Galesburg.

What does NAFTA mean to you today, I ask the couple?

"How could they have done this to us?" Kathy said. "It's horrible!" she added.

"I came to Maytag after four years in the Air Force," Scott said. "I fought for this country. Americans are good enough to die for American businesses, but not good enough to work in them," he concluded.

"You have to tell people that NAFTA is coming to them!" Kathy said. "It's not just Galesburg that this thing is killing. If it's not your town today, it will be tomorrow."

For the past month I had been trying to find accurate statistics relating to the effects NAFTA has had upon America. Thus far I had only succeeded in becoming frustrated. The IAM representatives I spoke with earlier expressed much the same frustration. They told me they had asked the U.S. Department of Labor on numerous occasions to furnish them with hard numbers on the amount of workers displaced from jobs as a result of NAFTA and as yet, had been unsuccessful in obtaining them. My own research into NAFTA at the Department of Labor and various other government websites had not produced any real statistical numbers. NAFTA, which has its own website, posted a Biennial Report from the Commission for Labor Cooperation. But even that lacked statistical data that could assist in determining the benefits of, or problems with, the treaty.

Mike Patrick, District Business Representative with the IAM, represents the employees at Maytag.

Researching the subject of NAFTA unearths a plethora of opposing assertions. The Public Citizen report and the Trade Representative Fact Sheet cited earlier, is such an example. The Internet has ample information on NAFTA's affect, but for every "report" asserting a failure in the treaty, there are other "reports" asserting success. Many of the organizations issuing these reports or making these assertions can be identified as special interest groups. For the most part, these assertions are being made without supporting data from independent research. Turning to most Government websites proves futile. As already noted, most do not contain hard statistical data. Many however, do contain the same assertions found on non-government websites. For example, although the U.S. Trade Representative issued a "fact sheet" under the heading "NAFTA is good for U.S. Farmer," none of the "facts" came with supporting data. Nor did the report cite any source of information for these "facts". The problem here is that if asked to support the information provided, the Trade Representative could well cite information obtained from one or more special interest groups. In so doing, a cycle of disinformation and misinformation could continue to befuddle the public and forestall any worthwhile changes that would benefit Americans.

There are hard figures available for serious researchers. The International Trade Agency, for example, posts hard data on exports and imports from and to the U.S. Viewing the data posted on exports and imports of Food and Live Animals between Canada, Mexico and the U.S., you would find an increase in exports from the U.S. to our two trading partners of $4.10 billion from 1997 to 2001. Holding to that figure alone, we can see how the Trade Representative may say NAFTA has been good to farmers. However, the import of food and live animals from our two trading partners increased $18.5 billion over the same time, a figure that is obviously bad for U.S. farmers.

One of the largest storefronts on Galesburg's main street is home to a Red Cross blood bank, which caters to an ever growing population of unemployed workers.

Finding statistics on job losses or gains attributable to NAFTA is far more difficult. To begin with, no government agency is publicly releasing such figures. In addition, when a factory closes in a town such as Galesburg, not only do the employees lose their jobs, but other employees from firms that provide goods and services to the Maytag plant will also be affected. Besides these workers, employees from firms that depend upon the spending of employees at Maytag will be affected as well. How can any agency accurately account for the loss of all these "associated" jobs?

There are formulas that have been proposed by various academics and research firms. The accuracy of each of these formulas is the subject of additional debate by pro-NAFTA and anti-NAFTA groups. But until someone can come up with a better plan to calculate these job losses, they remain the only vehicle which we can use to assess the impact of NAFTA on employment in the US.
Using several of these formulas, we may assume that for every one job directly lost by Maytag plant closing in Galesburg, three to five "indirect" jobs will be lost as well. That figure equates to a total job loss of between 4,800 and 8,000. Either figure represents a significant loss to a town with a population of only 34,000.

Empty storefronts along Galesburg's Main Street already forecast the fate of the town.

Another formula being used to equate job losses is that from the trade deficit figures between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The basis for this formula is the belief that when manufactured products are being imported into a country, it inhibits entrepreneurs within the receiving country from developing competing manufacturing facilities. Steel serves as such an example. Imports of steel into the U.S. have had a great impact on U.S. steel producers. They also keep entrepreneurs from opening steel mills to compete against these imports. That means jobs within that industry cannot be developed. They are, in effect, lost to the recipient country by imported goods. The greater the amount of imported goods, the larger the amount of job opportunities lost to the country.

Hard data on U.S. job losses from NAFTA can also be found at The Public Citizens website. They do, for example, maintain a database which tracks the number of Americans who apply for NAFTA's TAA. According to that data, more than 700,000 Americans have applied for TAA through May of 2002. Of that number, over 400,000 workers were certified to actually receive assistance. Using formulas to estimate the total direct and indirect job losses, as well as job creation prevented by trade deficits, Public Citizen asserts that since 1994, NAFTA has been responsible for the loss of over three million jobs in the U.S., with 1.7 million of those lost jobs coming from the manufacturing sector.

A big question that the Chief Engineer was attempting to answer with its look at a decade of NAFTA and our report on the Maytag closing in Galesburg was what exactly had prompted Maytag's decision to close its plant in Galesburg and move to Reynosa, Mexico?

Henry Ford revolutionized business in the U.S. by raising the wages of his auto assembly line workers. Ford believed that if he paid his own workers enough money to afford the same cars they were building in his plants, it would prove to be a good thing for both the workers and Ford. As it turned out, that decision by Ford initiated the creation of the great U.S. middle class, which in turn created today's great and powerful U.S. economy. What is it that has changed that economic formula in America today? What would prompt Maytag and other American manufacturers to fire American workers, move their plants to other countries and continue to expect Americans to, in the long run, be capable of purchasing their expensive products? And how could Maytag expect one of their future Mexican workers, earning a reported net of about 75 cents per hour (U.S. equivalent), to buy one of those shiny new refrigerators he or she was going to make?

For Sale signs litter the vacant industrial sites in and around the Galesburg area.

As we researched Maytag, we found that they presently had a well trained workforce and an established plant of about one million square feet in Galesburg. The company was apparently not losing money on its manufacturing business. Their reported sales for 2002 totaled $4.25 billion. They were listed as 395th on Fortune magazine's list of the 500 largest corporations in the country. On October 14th, just three days after announcing the Galesburg plant closing, Maytag reported a third quarter earnings increase of nearly 50% over the previous year's same quarter. Per share earnings were reported to be 48 cents for the quarter.

In 1994, Maytag had threatened to leave the community of Galesburg and the town and state provided a number of incentives to Maytag to convince them to stay. Over $9 million in various incentives were reportedly provided to the company. The town of Galesburg imposed a tax upon its residents to provide nearly $3,000,000 to Maytag. The town also provided about $1 million in tax abatements to the company. We also learned the tax abatements provided to Maytag were due to expire in 2004, the same year they will be leaving the town for good. Except for a low interest loan provided by the State of Illinois, no payback of these incentives has yet been forthcoming from Maytag. In addition, according to one report, Maytag is presently in an Illinois appeals court trying to have their property taxes decreased by about half of what they are presently assessed to pay.

Empty storefronts and sidewalks along Galesburg's Main Street are becoming more predominant as merchants move out.

We had learned from the IAM representatives that the average wage for a Maytag worker in Galesburg is $15.14 per hour. In 2001, the average yearly earning for a worker at the Maytag plant was about $33,555.00, a nice income for rural America, but far from extravagant. The reported salary of Maytag's President is well over one-half million dollars more per year than the average Maytag worker in Galesburg. And that's without the bonuses and incentives provided to Maytag's upper executives.

Galesburg has a long history with organized labor and working men and women. Knox College, which resides in Galesburg, was originally established as a college for studies in manual labor. Galesburg was also home to Patrick Henry Morrissey who was, at one moment in history, the most powerful labor leader in America. If you ask, citizens of Galesburg will tell you it's a good workingman and woman's town. They will also say it's a good union town.

The Galesburg "Labor Temple" is an unimposing building on the southern part of the city. Inside the building are the offices of most of the unions represented throughout the area. We found our way to the IAM office inside the building and were greeted by Dave Bevard, the President of Local Lodge 2036, Doug Dennison, the Vice President and Aaron Kemp, the Local's Training Director. All three work at the Maytag plant and were elected by their fellow IAM workers to the positions they hold within the union. Also present was Mike Patrick, the Business Representative for IAM's District 102, which includes the local lodge of Maytag workers.

The local appliance dealer in Galesburg still advertises for a Maytag appliance sale.

Maytag has employed Dave for nearly 30 years. Under the existing Maytag "30 and out" policy, he will be able to retire with full benefits before the plant closes. About 43 workers at Maytag will fall months short of reaching their 30th anniversary with the company when it closes its doors in late 2004. Unless Maytag agrees to assist these workers, their pension benefits will not start until they reach the age of 65. This is one of the key issues these union officers are grappling with. These 43 members will lose as much as 15 years of pension benefits unless Maytag agrees to allow them to retire early or places them in another Maytag owned plant until they reach their 30th anniversary of employment. Another key issue the union is trying to raise with Maytag is a severance package for all the employees of the Galesburg plant.
"We intend to fight for all the members within the plant," Dave says. "What Maytag is doing is unfair to everyone who works there."

Under the Maytag closure plan, they have basically given the Galesburg employees about 21 months to pay off some credit card debts before closing the plant. It wouldn't seem likely to us that employees would threaten to strike the plant and lose what little income they might use to prepare for their futures. We asked Dave and the others what incentive they thought Maytag had to cooperate and reach a settlement.

"With Maytag, their reputation means everything to them," he says. "What they are doing to their employees is disgraceful and they must come to some terms to make things right. They have an ethical obligation."

"We still believe they may change their mind about moving," Doug, a 19 year Maytag employee, chimes in. "It doesn't make any sense that they would close their best plant in the U.S. and move to Mexico."

Was the Galesburg plant their best plant, we asked?

Absolutely! They agree. They then related how in their last contract with Maytag, they had agreed to 13 work rule changes demanded by Maytag. The plant went from 2,400 workers to the present 1,600 workers, increased production, lowered cost and produced the best appliances on the market.

"Maytag acknowledges all of our hard work," Dave said. "They have no choice. We met every demand they made and still produced the best product they sell."

"The only thing they could tell us was the plant is not competitively viable," Aaron, a 7-year Maytag employee, says. "But they won't tell us what they mean by that.

"What is competitively viable?" Dave asks. "Can anyone answer that for us?"

"If Maytag refuses to negotiate any severance for the employees, or provide some sort of buy-out for near retirement workers, what will you do?" we asked.

"We will continue to produce the best appliances in the world," Dave offers. "We owe it to American consumers to do that."

"Until that last worker leaves," Doug adds. "We may not have jobs, but we still have our pride."

I ask the three what NAFTA means to them.

"They talk about a global economy," Aaron says. "For American workers, it's just a race to the bottom."

"It's corporate rape," Dave offers.

Bob Sheehan, Mayor of Galesburg, says he no longer supports NAFTA.

Maytag's stock had been in decline, falling from around $32.00 per share in September, 2002 to below $20.00 per share in the beginning of October. Following its announcement of closing the Galesburg plant, the company's stock rebounded to around $26.00 per share by mid October.

Why a company's stock will rebound on news of plant closings and/or lay-offs often perplexes non-investors. Stock analysts attribute such rises in stock price to a belief by investors that the company is either "trimming" non-essential employees or that the company is adopting a more efficient manner of conducting its business. Beginning in the late 1970's, Americans came to believe that American business was being left in the wake of a great Japanese corporate tsunami. Much media attention was being made of supposed better, more efficient methods used by Japan to manufacture and market goods. As American businesses responded with retooling of their own factories and restyling their method of conducting business, Wall Street investors greeted the news with buy orders for stock.

Although it seemed to make sense in those days, today we often witness a company's stock rally on an announced lay-off or "spin-off", even when there doesn't seem to be a clear forward strategy on the part of that company. It is as if Wall Street investors are reacting out of habit more than common sense to such announcements.

Maytag's departure will impact many other businesses as well. Plenty of land lies vacant in Galesburg's southern industrialized zone.

Another economic change that has occurred since the 1970's is in the ownership of American companies. Prior to that time, a company's stock was more widely held by individual investors. Today, the stock of most large public companies is being held by large institutional or mutual funds. Maytag, for example, according to its financial center, has institutional and mutual funds controlling nearly 83% of its outstanding stock. According to the same Maytag supplied figures, 345 Institutions and 610 Mutual Funds control nearly 66 million shares of stock. Such large ownership in a corporation gives fund managers a great deal of power over both those corporations and the executives who operate them.

The managers who control these funds are held accountable by the institutions and individuals who are investing within their funds. That accountability however, remains fixed on the performance of the stocks held within the fund ? not on the performance of the companies that issue the stock in the first place. In other words, it is not always in the best interest of a fund manager that a company is making a good or bad strategic business decision. From the fund manager's perspective, it is more about the value of that company's stock. This pattern of corporate ownership and stock value concern make long term corporate strategic planning extremely difficult for CEOs. It also seems to be costing too many working Americans their livelihood.

Stacy and John Ester confront the loss of both their incomes within the next few months.

Today a company can be well run, make a steady profit and provide a consistent stock dividend to investors. However, if that same company's stock is languishing or "under performing", the CEO running that company could find him or herself on the wrong side of the fund managers invested in that company. This can, and has in the past, cost CEOs their job. The CEO of a publicly traded American company in such a position today is placed under enormous pressure by fund managers to "get their stock moving". Unfortunately, to get that stock moving may mean sacrificing smart long-term strategies for a short-term investor ploy. Among the ploys too often being used it seems, is announced lay-offs and off-shore moves.

Today, the President of Ford could never arbitrarily increase the pay for all employees like Henry Ford did. Fund managers would never be willing to take the same long-term risk. They would dump Ford's stock in mass sending it spiraling down. Ford's President would be run out of town by the fund managers and other shareholders. For the most part, fund managers are not into long-term anything. Stock must move within their portfolios or investors may move to another fund. As a consequence, even if corporate CEOs see in the long run a catastrophe for the company resulting from layoffs and plant closings, fund managers are the people running Americas economic engine; and that engine is running on a short-term track.

John Ester could lose as much as 15 years of pension benefits when Maytag moves from Galesburg.

Galesburg Mayor, Bob Sheehan, grew up on Chicago's south side. A graduate of Marist High School, he attended Knox College in Galesburg and liked the town well enough to stay there and call it home.
We asked the Mayor what Galesburg was doing to meet the challenges the Maytag closing would present for the town.

"We formed a committee," he said. "They are presently looking at ways we can promote the city."

Sheehan went on to tell us that a $3 million bond issue was also being considered to purchase 400 acres of land and promote an industrial park for the town.

Would $3 million be enough to provide for the land improvements, we asked?

"We would wait until a manufacturer actually expressed an interest in locating here," he said, "before looking for the funding to provide any improvements."

Was there any prospect now for a company to come to Galesburg?

"No," he replied.

We asked the Mayor what he knew about NAFTA years earlier when it was first being proposed.

"I know some people came here and asked us to support it," he said.

"Did you?" we asked.

"Yes," he replied. "We made a motion or something in support of it".

"What do you think about NAFTA now?" we asked.

Sheehan shook his head as he replied: "It's horrible, no, I don't support it now."

The Galesburg City website is being used by the town to explore avenues of growth. The committee that Mayor Sheehan spoke of went through a brain storming session to identify various things they liked and disliked about their town. We assume this was an effort to identify the strengths and weaknesses inherent in Galesburg and issues they might eventually address. All of the positive and negative points about the town submitted by committee members are posted on the website. As we read from these postings, it seemed as though the town is going through some sort of mass therapy session, trying to figure out what it is they collectively did that prompted Maytag to run off and into the arms of a Mexican cutie named Reynosa.

A link from the same website allows one to do a job search for the Galesburg area. We browsed to this site and pulled a listing of all job openings. We found two openings for a critical care nurse, one for a radiology technologist, one for a registered nurse and one for an ultrasound technologist. Outside of these health care openings, no other jobs were available from the site.

John and Stacy Ester reside in a modest, well-kept home on the north side of Galesburg. Married for nine years, they share their home with a white Samoyed, named Teeka. John has worked at Maytag for the past 26 years, making him one of the 43 workers who may lose out on a part of his pension when the plant closes. Stacy has worked at Maytag for the last 9 years. Stacy is the third generation in her family to work in the plant. Her mother retired from Maytag after 30 years; her grandmother worked there for more than 20 years.

"We work the second shift at the plant," Stacy said. "So it wasn't until the following Monday that the managers told us about the plant closing."

Stacy related how the Plant Manager stood upon a table and spoke for only about 30 seconds to the employees gathered.

"He then got down and hurried away to his office," she said. "A couple of people tried to ask him questions, but he ignored them and just went away."

"Did he ever speak to the employees about the plant closing again?", we asked.

"No," she said. "He was on the shop floor a couple of times after that, but he left for Reynosa a week or two later."

"How is this move by Maytag going to affect you?" we asked.

"One week after the announcement," Stacy said, "a house for sale down the street from us lowered its sale price by $20,000.00. By the time the plant closes, so many workers will be trying to leave to find jobs, we don't know if our house will be worth anything."

"What was it like to work at the Maytag plant?" we asked.

"It is hard work," Stacy said. "I have given a lot of sweat and some blood to that plant. A lot of people for generations have. "But," she added, "It is a good job with great people working there."

Stacy went on to tell us how most employees at the plant also socialized in their free time. She herself is a participant on an employee bowling team. Picnics, softball and numerous other activities exist among the employees from Maytag.

"It's not just jobs we are losing," she said. "It's our whole life".

We asked them what they thought of NAFTA when it was first proposed.

"I never remember hearing about it at all," Stacy said.

"I only remember it being something for farmers," John said. "I never knew it could do something like this to Americans."

We asked if there was any message they would want to give to the readers of the Chief Engineer?

"People have got to get involved," Stacy said. "People have to start looking at issues like NAFTA and educate themselves with the facts. I didn't know anything about what was going on until I volunteered to work with my union," she said. "Then my eyes became open to all of these issues in the world and I started to see that people like myself can make a difference."

"It doesn't matter how a person gets involved," she said. "Church, town meetings, unions, whatever," she said. "What's important is that they get involved and learn what is going on before it's too late for all of us and for America."

Stacy Ester, an 8-year employee at Maytag, is considering training for a position in the medical of paralegal profession.

The Chief Engineer had embarked on a quest to find out what we could about the last 10 years of NAFTA and its effect on working Americans. In the end we walked away with a few things we feel are worth considering.

First, NAFTA is an economic policy having profound effect upon the citizens of this country. Despite this fact, very few Americans seem to know much about the treaty or how the treaty will impact upon them. Neither the elected officials in Galesburg nor any Maytag employee we interviewed could tell us what NAFTA means to America. Although now, harshly, they have found out what it means to their own lives and their town.

Clearly, the U.S. government must share a major part of the blame for such public ignorance by not providing more information to the American people. We found the lack of information and statistical data relating to NAFTA provided by the government nothing less than astonishing. The American people must also shoulder a major part of this blame. Their apparent unwillingness to become involved in a government meant to be "by and for" the people has made it possible for special interests to take their place in establishing government policies.

Secondly, there is no apparent American vision associated with NAFTA. Americans have always shown a willingness to support their government, even when it means suffering and self sacrifice. But when it comes to NAFTA, Americans have no idea what, if any, ultimate goal exists on the part of the U.S., which makes this treaty worthwhile. If just a single American must suffer hardship, no matter how briefly endured, this government is obliged to inform us of the reasons why.

Thirdly, besides profits garnered by financiers and investors, we found no apparent benefit to the American people for the past decade of NAFTA. On the contrary, we found a lowering of wages, the breakup of entire communities, the displacement of families and record breaking imports into this country which threaten to increase the failure and prevent the development of small and medium size manufacturing concerns. What is happening in Galesburg today has already occurred in hundreds of communities throughout the United States, affecting countless thousands of American working families. Allowed to remain in effect, NAFTA will continue to spur an exodus of American businesses, stripping the country of ever more jobs and reeking havoc upon the lives of more and more middle income Americans.

Finally, we found a real need for steps to be taken to reign in the enormous influence wealthy investors and financial managers exert upon corporate America and the American government. Until the people are willing to demand such steps, policies of self interest such as NAFTA and the continued hardship such policies place upon working families will continue.

Galesburg, Illinois, although a town presently without a future, is a town with a remarkable past. As well as the past historical figures we have mentioned, there is yet one more American historical figure from this remarkable town. Carl Sandburg, the poet who found such remarkable inspiration from America's working men and women, was born in Galesburg. We thought, therefore, it might be appropriate to conclude our story with a few words from this remarkable man. They are from his poem entitled, "Government".

Everywhere I saw that Government is a thing made of men,
that Government has blood and bones, it is many mouths
whispering into many ears,
sending telegrams, aiming rifles, writing orders,
saying "yes" and "no."

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