Plant Closures: Myths, Realities and Responses

Haas, deputy to Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo, argues here that the spate of factory closings in the U.S. since the late '70s can be halted and perhaps reversed if workers and others organize and protest. She discusses examples of such campaigns that resulted in improved severance benefits for employees. She then examines the general economic situation, maintaining that the usual reasons given for the decline in manufacturing jobsthat American workers have priced themselves out of the market, that technological innovation is too costlyare misleading. Rather, she argues, multinational corporations have tended to ""disinvest'' in America in search of easier profits overseas and in non-manufacturing industries. She also contends that workers in comparable Japanese and European companies are not paid much more than American laborers. While Haas's program has an uphill fight, her arguments are challenging. February