NINE HUNDRED RITCHIE JOBS GONE SOUTH - NAFTA "There Is No Free Trade About It"

(09/09/2003)

A few years ago businessman Don Mosser said as many as 900 people were employed in local Ritchie County factories, including his garment plant. Ritchie's last garment plant has now closed, and Mosser and his last 40 employees are out of work, he says a victim of NAFTA. "There's no free trade about it! We do all the trading and they get all the jobs," he said. NAFTA was designed to make trade easier, but what it has done is take jobs out of America. Mosser says NAFTA is a one-way street, dedicated to finding super-cheap labor and making more money for owners and stockholders. The loss of middle-class jobs has caused deficits in most states. "If you want a geography lesson, just take a look at the labels on garments in Wal-Mart," he said. "No more middle-class jobs in America." At one time there were several garment manufacturers in Ritchie. All are gone, just like Kellwood in Spencer that also went to Mexico. Mosser said foreign workers are now making many of our military uniforms.

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