Labor statistics from the front line

To the editor:
    We need Congress to look at our trade policy. I’m one of the Americans that have lost my job at Pinkham Lumber due to the unfair trade policy. I’m working as a peer support worker for laid-off workers in Aroostook County until June of 2010. There are 816 laid-off workers in Aroostook County that we know of but there are always a few we do not hear about. About 298 of these workers have found work but 90 percent of them have found that their new job pays less then the job they were laid off from. Some of these jobs are seasonal so they will be laid off again in the fall.
    There are 543 of the laid-off workers that are certified for TAA-Trade Adjustment Assistance. The 132 that are in training hope to get a good-paying job when they finish their training. We are waiting to hear on 120 people pending trade certifications and there are 386 people in job search.
    Americans need major change in trade policy to bring back our manufacturing and farming jobs to the United States. Our companies are moving out of our country to make more money but the working people are the ones paying the price. We are now getting food imported that is making us sick and toys with lead paint that will make our children sick, the trade act is letting foreign countries buy up our land and take our natural resources like lumber out of our country to mill it then flood our market and put Maine people out of work.
    The TRADE Act, sponsored by Mike Michaud, is a way to reform trade policy to get people back to work and make sure the rules of the global economy are fair.
    Maine people that I have worked with through being a peer support worker want to work. These people have worked from two years to 35 years. They are proud hard-working people that want to work and make a livable wage. We need to pass the TRADE Act so jobs will come back to the United States.
    Companies move their factories to other countries to make bigger profits but it is the working Americans that pay the price. Imports do not have to meet the American standards so we are losing our jobs and getting sick from all these imports. I hope President Obama and Congress, especially Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins here in Maine, will support the TRADE Act so we can get our economy back on track.
Gayleen Spooner
Sherman