Newton Mayor to Moderate June 8 Discussion on Bringing Manufacturing Jobs Back to America

NEWTON, Iowa – The continued loss of American manufacturing jobs and ways to reverse that trend are the topic of a Wednesday, June 8, town hall-style panel discussion to be hosted by Mayor Chaz Allen.

“No one has to tell the residents of this community what the loss of Maytag jobs has meant. Quality jobs that provide good wages and health insurance are the backbone of a healthy economy,” Allen said. “I don’t want people to forget the importance of manufacturing jobs or stop thinking for even a minute that we need to work every day to attract more manufacturing jobs. Newton’s health depends on it and we’re really a microcosm of the state and U.S. economy.”

The one-hour meeting, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday in the second-floor auditorium at the Newton DMACC campus, 600 N. Second Ave., West. Speakers will include Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Pauken, Iowa State University economist Mark Edelman and representatives from the business and labor communities.

Texas has created more private sector jobs than any other state over the last 10 years and has had the lowest unemployment rate of the 10 largest states. Pauken has been traveling the country to promote changes in U.S. tax policy to reverse the tide of manufacturing jobs that have moved off shore.

“As Maytag was leaving Newton in 2007, a New York Times reporter wrote a story that asked, Is there middle-class life after Maytag? That’s an important question that needs to be asked every time we lost a manufacturing job anywhere in this country,” Pauken said. “We hear elected officials talk about America becoming an innovation leader but as Andy Grove, the co-founder of Intel once said, you can’t innovate if you don’t make things. We’re letting other countries make almost everything these days. We have to change that.”

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