NEWS CONFERENCE State senators promote Ohio Jobs Protection Bill

Senators asked Gov. Taft to issue an order to help protect Ohio's jobs.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
LIBERTY -- State government must step up to the plate when it comes to protecting jobs of Ohioans, state senators said as a bill was introduced to do just that.
State Sens. Marc Dann, D-32nd, of Liberty, and Robert F. Hagan, D-33rd, of Youngstown, conducted a news conference in the law offices of Dann and Falgiani to announce Thursday's introduction by Senate Democrats of the Ohio Jobs Protection Bill.
"Government at all levels needs to start to step up and use what tools we have to try to help keep our jobs here in America," Dann said. "We all have to do our part because it's really becoming a serious problem," he added.
The bill would bar state agencies from outsourcing work to foreign countries and prohibit the awarding of state contracts to companies that outsource services or supplies overseas.
Targeting outsourcing
Dann also said he'd offer an amendment to another bill, Senate Bill 116, which would bar companies that have accepted job creation tax credits from removing jobs from the country.
"Outsourcing is costing our economy a tremendous amount of money in jobs and security for so many families," Hagan said.
The impending loss of 700 jobs in June at MCI in Niles "is exactly the kind of problem that people across the State of Ohio are facing," Dann said. Several employees there were sent to the Philippines to train their replacements, who will work for $1.60 an hour, Dann said.
"That is just not acceptable, and the State of Ohio shouldn't be providing economic development assistance to companies that do that," Dann said.
Dann said he and Hagan are spearheading a bipartisan study group, which will hold its first meeting Tuesday, and which will try to identify other ways the state can help prevent further outsourcing of jobs overseas.
Request for Taft
Hagan said he has asked Gov. Bob Taft to follow in the footsteps of the governors of Michigan and Missouri by "issuing an executive order demanding that any type of money that goes to any of these corporations cannot ship any of their jobs overseas."
"What we're looking for is fairness, and I think the governor can do a lot by executive order. We're asking for him to make sure that there's a future for Ohioans," Hagan said.
"We hope that this bill becomes unnecessary because Gov. Taft could, with a stroke of a pen, do a lot of what we need to do," Dann agreed.
Hagan cited a finding by the research organization, Policy Matters Ohio, that Ohio lost more than 244,000 jobs between 1999 and 2003, of which almost 46,000 were relocated to another country. "It's draining everything. First it was manufacturing. Now, it's white collar. What will it be next?" he asked.
milliken@vindy.com