As Appleton Paper Ponders More Layoffs, Kagen Backs Teamsters

Ladies and gentlemen, this is what happens when you have a former Teamster fail to purge his loyalties for one union over another.

It's a pity those caught in the middle are real working-class families in his own district.

And here's the part where I put the pieces together...

Find a moment, hell, find a press release of his bio, and you'll find that Rep. Steve Leslie Kagen, M.D. (D-Appleton) worked as a Teamster at Foremost Dairy when not at Med School, where he loaded trucks.  Here's his bio from "DKosopedia." It's something of a throwaway line now.

Kagen began his working career as a Teamster, bagging sugar and whey at Foremost Dairy.

This dedication to Jimmy Hoffa Jr.'s band of merry mafia-connected thugs, doesn't just have the man singing from the Gospel according to the trucking union; he's often a soloist in the choir.  Earlier this year when Congress ended the U.S.-Mexico Cross-Border Trucking Program, Kagen was the only Wisconsin Representative to herald the move by parroting Teamster talking points about "Mexican Truck Safety."

Congressman Steve Kagen, M.D. said we are keeping our nation secure by bringing an end to the unsafe program of allowing unregulated trucks based in Mexico into the United States.

“I consider it my primary responsibility as a leader to keep our citizens safe,” said Kagen. “Allowing trucks across our borders without proper safety regulations puts millions of Americans at risk. For years we have been calling on our President to put the brakes on foreign-based trucks at the border. I am glad to say that now we have a President who can think things all the way through and put an end to this program.”

The Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009, which President Obama signed into law yesterday, contains a provision preventing the Department of Transportation from using any funds for a cross-border pilot program which allows unsafe Mexico-based trucks into the United States.

This legislation marks the second time that Congress has voted to stop this program. The previous administration continued the pilot program despite the objection of Congress and a prohibition on the use of funding for the program in the FY 2008 Consolidated Appropriations law. Congressman Kagen also co-sponsored the Safe American Roads Act, which passed the House in May 2007. The bill sought to block the Mexican truck pilot program from going forward until 22 specific safety requirements were verified by the Department of Transportation.

I've written too much about the Mexican Cross-Border trucking program to rehash the safety argument again.  If you'd like, please read the following posts here, here, and here.

As most people are aware, after Congress passed to eliminate the Cross-Board Trucking Program, Mexico retaliated by slapping on tariffs of nearly 90 items to their pre-NAFTA levels.  A large percentage of trade experts who are aware of the 15 year history of the US-Mexico/NAFTA and cross-border trucking have sided with Mexico in the dispute.

Which now leads us to the present.  This past weekend, a group calling itself "Alliance to Keep U.S. Jobs" was founded.  The group is a collection of over 150 companies, associations, and advocacy groups which were directly effected by the Mexican tariffs.  Among the group is Appleton Paper, which has seen its exports to Mexico for carbonless-paper plummet.  Prior to the tariffs, the company was part of a number of American companies which supplies almost 75 percent of the carbonless-paper to Mexico.

Now it's seeing its portion of the Mexican market by European and Chinese papermakers.

Some of the 2,200 unionized employees of Appleton Papers are getting closer to layoffs.

The Wisconsin-based company does more than $50 million of business annually in Mexico. Since the 10 percent tariff on paper was announced in March, Appleton has fretted about laying off some of its production workers, whose pay averages about $20 an hour.

"I can't really just say when we will have to do this, but I will say this is urgent," said Bill Van Den Brandt, manager of corporate communications at the 102-year-old firm. "We have employees here who are second and third generation. But we are fighting now against competitors who have a 10 percent price advantage."

What has been the Kagen response to potential job losses in his District?  Why blame the Mexicans of course, like he did in April!

A provision in the FY09 omnibus spending bill called for a halt to the trucking program, and Mexico retaliated with tariffs affecting U.S. firms large and small. Take Appleton Papers Inc., a Wisconsin manufacturer with 2,200 employees. The firm, the world's largest producer of carbonless paper, got hit with a 10 percent tariff last month. Local Rep. Steve Kagen, D-Wis., supports renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement and has co-authored legislation to stop the trucking program created by the 1993 pact.

Appleton sells $50 million in carbonless paper to Mexican firms a year. A company spokesman could not say how many jobs would be lost if the standoff continues, but added it was hard to see an alternative. Layoffs have already occurred because of the recession, as major customers in the auto, financial and retail industries have cut orders. Appleton spokesman Bill Van Den Brandt said this was one of the firm's toughest challenges. "We have products competing against products from Europe and Asia that have no such duty from Mexico. It's difficult to compete with an artificially imposed price disadvantage," he said.

The firm is 100 percent employee-owned and pro-union. But the Teamsters union is the biggest critic of the trucking program -- a position also supported by Kagen, despite entreaties from Appleton. "Companies in the United States should not have to pay a price for the failure of the Mexican truckers to comply with our safety standards," Kagen said. Appleton has also reached out to the state's Democratic Sens. Herb Kohl and Russell Feingold. A Kohl aide said he is hopeful the issue will be raised at this weekend's Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, which Obama is also attending.

Emphasis mine.  And for those wondering, the issue never was brought up during the Summit of the Americas.  Currently, the Department of Transportation is still sweating out the details of a "replacement" cross-border trucking program which no one knows the slightest detail of.

So, in the end, the Teamster loyalties of Kagen -- in a dispute no legal mind I've talked to sees the United States winning...ever -- could end up costing potentially hundreds of his constituents their jobs.

Good to know, "The Doctor" is on the case.