Voices

US jobs should be a real priority, not just lip service for Alaska senators

I really like "Buy Local" campaigns.

I liked it when, in his State of the State speech, Gov. Bill Walker talked about supporting our local small businesses every chance we can because goodness knows those businesses are the ones that support our local youth sports programs.

I listened to a radio broadcast this week updating folks on the fundraiser at the Chapman School in Anchor Point. A young girl and her mother were both injured badly on Christmas Day in a car accident. The girl lost both her legs. She's 11 years old. So many local businesses had donated to the cause of helping their family with their financial burdens.

This concept isn't really new for me. We take care of our own.

About 10 years ago I was on a flight to my grandmother's funeral. I was on a mileage ticket, which included the milk run through Juneau on my way to the East Coast. A man sat in the seat across from me. When we were stowing our gear, I noticed his vest was embroidered with the IBEW insignia. "Sir," I said, "I'm going to have to check your label and make sure that vest was made in America and by a union shop."

He blinked. Yeah. I was the self-appointed politically correct fashion police.

He leaned forward and put his head down a bit.

ADVERTISEMENT

I checked the label.

"You're golden!" I said, "Way to walk your talk, mister."

The people around me laughed. I'm not sure what they thought would happen if it were a "Made in Cambodia" tag. I'm not sure myself.

There have been a couple of interesting stories floating around about "Made in America," and they don't really add up.

First, this week, the U.S. Senate voted against an amendment to the Keystone XL pipeline bill to require all steel used in the construction of the project to be "Made in America" steel. If this is, as the Republicans claim, about making jobs for Americans -- then let's make sure we get the jobs from the product manufacturing on up to construction. Right?

Alaska's senior senator, the Republican who might as well represent Alberta, said it would be "the first time on record that Congress would have required a private company to source materials only from the U.S."

Boo-flippin-hoo. A foreign corporation that will take, through eminent domain, property away from red-blooded Americans should maybe be willing to at least buy our stuff to go across our land.

The second story? Well, this one is curious to me. I'll go back a few years. For more than 50 years, the Alaska Marine Highway System has included in their services ferry service to a Canadian port -- Prince Rupert, British Columbia. In 2013 we signed another 50-year lease for the port. The port needs to have some work done to it -- to the tune of between $10 million and $20 million, which seems reasonable after looking at the money-suck of the Anchorage port.

So, Alaska had monies allocated for the project and federal funds were also secured -- federal meaning America. The federally funded projects -- specifically those through the Federal Highway Administration -- have a "Made in America" requirement for iron, steel and manufactured products.

At this point Canada had a cow. It were furious that such a requirement was being made for a project built on its soil ... with someone else's funds. The people paying for the project would like the jobs.

They stomped their feet and had a few meltdowns after asking the new Alaska administration to please ask for a waiver from the feds, and then they threatened to block the project on their soil. British Columbia's Premier Christy Clark said the Alaska ferry service was "unfriendly." Really, lady? We're building and updating your ferry terminal with our money and you think that's unfriendly? I think she may be hard to please.

Yeah, because if you can't have it exactly as you want it then you don't want it at all?

Gov. Walker just axed the project. He saw no need to ask for the waiver because that provision creates American jobs. The new port was axed because we don't want to pay for it without the feds, because we can't. Because we're broke.

Last year, Premier Clark told reporters, "This is our country, it is our land, it is our port, it is our laws and the Americans are building a facility here in Canada, in our province, where we aren't allowed to have a chance to supply or fabricate the steel. That's just wrong."

Would have been nice to see Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan and a slew of Republicans in the Senate channel a little bit of that patriotism for American workers while pushing through a bill that hurts Alaska's economy. Time to stop calling this a jobs bill.

Shannyn Moore is a radio broadcaster.

The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, e-mail commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com

Shannyn Moore

Shannyn Moore is a radio broadcaster.

ADVERTISEMENT