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Show Rally spotlights local steel workers 9 plight "U.S. Steel has abandoned Utah Valley and is working to save Korean Jobs. I see that as unfair, unjust and downright dangerous for us," Warner Woodworth, Professor of Organizational Behavior at Brigham Young University and author of a study on Geneva Steel, told participants of the "Save American Industry and Jobs Day" rally held Saturday at the Steelworkers hall. The rally was held at the United Steelworkers Hall in Orem under the direction of Local 2701, and included a panel discussion, entertainment, and a large screen telecast originating in Washington D.C. which discussed the industrial decline and the affects of international in-ternational trade legislation. Union leaders said the rally was being held simultaneously throughout the nation to protest the decline of America's steel and other basic industries which have resulted in the loss of over 11 million American jobs since 1979, and to discuss possible answers to turn the industrial decline around. Woodworth was one of eight panel members who discussed American industry and jobs, and specifically the possibility of the closure of U.S. Steel's Geneva Works in Orem. Other panel members were Senators Jake Garn and Orrin Hatch, and Rep. Howard Nielson. Also congressional candidates Wayne Owens, Gunn McKay, and Dale Gardiner, and Garth Mangum, Professor of Economics at the University of Utah. Ed Mayne, president of the Utah State AFL-CIO, AFL-CIO, served as panel moderator. Woodworth said Washington says it doesn't want to "start a trade war" but "it looks like war is already here" and instead being of on foreign soil, is "right now on American soil with American jobs." See RALLY on page 12 Rally Continued from Front Page "I have to admit it doesn't look good for Geneva Steel right now," Hatch started the panel by saying. He sees a new Trade Act passed by Congress before the end of the year, he said. "We need to get rid of politics and work together, not think about Democrats or Republicans, but about families," he said. McKay said symbolic gestures by other countries are not enough, there needs to be fair trade. "If they aren't willing to reduce the barriers in a fair way we have to react accordingly," ac-cordingly," he said. Speaking on the fair trade act now before Congress, Nielson said if the fair trade act is passed and voluntary volun-tary restrains don't work, "we will have something to fall back on." Gardiner said he remembers when he was a boy, people either worked at Kennicott, at Geneva Steel or "as my Dad, was a farmer." "Unless some basic legislative changes are made quickly, you will be in the same mess tomorrow as you are today," he said, noting all the job losses are not in the steel or copper industry but every week new companies announce layoffs. "If it was a natural disaster the state would be declared a National Disaster Area, but because it (plant closures and layoffs) has occurred because of unfair trade plans, the problem will still be here tomorrow," he said. Garn said when he first went to the Senate 12 years ago, there were three problem areas - Kennicott and Geneva jobs and the Central Utah Project. "1 don't know how many times I thought we had the problems solved, but like the birthday candles that you can't blow out, they keep coming back, and it becomes especially frustrated when it's your jobs." -i |