On May 7, 2009, Senator Herb Kohl wrote, “At a time when unemployment is at an all time high in the U.S., every effort must be made to promote American jobs”. Kohl says of his Senate record that “I have made it a priority to work to create jobs”.
Why is it, then, that Senator Kohl is encouraging the corporation SC Johnson to ship jobs overseas? This week, Kohl introduced three bills specifically crafted to help SC Johnson avoid creating American jobs. The bills, S. 2121, S. 2122, and S. 2123, lift import duties on fan assisted, plug-in, scented oil dispensing, electrothermic appliances and continuous action, self-contained, fan-motor driven, battery-operated, portable personal devices for mosquito repellent.
It’s fairly easy to understand what the mosquito repellent device does. It’s a clip-on carrier that constantly blows out bits of mosquito repellent into the air around the person who wears it.
What on earth, though, is a fan assisted, plug-in, scented oil dispensing, electrothermic appliance?
It’s a relatively new kind of plug-in air “freshener”. You plug it in to a wall socket, and a fan starts up that blows scented oils all around the room to create a special odor that some people like. These devices don’t actually make the air in a room fresher, of course. They just spread a bunch of little oil droplets through the air, that will then produce certain sensations as people breathe them in.
Both the mosquito repellent and the air fresheners are produced by SC Johnson. SC Johnson is a corporation based in Wisconsin, the state that Herb Kohl represents.
The jobs to actually produce the fan Glade air fresheners and mosquito repellents, however, are not in Wisconsin. SC Johnson doesn’t want to hire Wisconsin workers for those jobs. SC Johnson doesn’t want to hire American workers of any sort for those jobs. So, SC Johnson has shipped those jobs overseas, to factories in foreign countries where weak democracies, slipshod environmental regulations and general poverty keep labor costs low.
SC Johnson could make its Off mosquito repellent clips in the United States. SC Johnson could make its electrical-powered fan plug in air fresheners here in the United States. It chooses not to, because SC Johnson values its profits more than the American people.
With bills like the ones he introduced to the Senate this week, Senator Herb Kohl is helping SC Johnson avoid creating American jobs. He’s helping SC Johnson make profits by lowering the cost of using factories in foreign countries rather than ones here in the USA.
In a time when unemployment in the United States is high, the decision by Herb Kohl and SC Johnson to keep jobs out of our country is particularly reprehensible.
Postscript: Herb Kohl will be running for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2012. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the 3rd largest source of the campaign funds collected by Kohl so far is SC Johnson.
It really is amazing to see such a biased view and such a treasure-trove of inaccurate implications. Shame on you for being such a fearmonger.
Work for SC Johnson, do you?
What’s the inaccuracy in his report? Yes, these products are made overseas. No, they aren’t being made in Wisconsin. Yes, Senator Herb Kohl has sponsored legislation to make it easier for SC Johnson to import these products from overseas instead of making and distributing them right here in the USA. That’s what the legislation would do.
MS, could you explain to me what the tremendous need for imported blowing air fresheners is, the need that justifies a special exemption for them, and justifies sending American jobs overseas?
Maybe America can only smell fresh enough to deflect the terrorists when it uses scents imported from China.
It’s really amazing to see such accusations of bias and inaccuracy without any mention of what these supposed biases or inaccuracies are. Shame on you for being such a person who says shame on you without saying what the shame is for.
Oh great – more TOXIC CHINESE CRAP WE DDON’T NEED!
please, don’t tell me, herb’s a republican?
No, he’s a Democrat.
good. i was beginning to think it was all a right wing conspiracy. it makes me feel better knowing they’re all out to get us. i think…
I used to buy from S.C.Johnson in Canada, they had a plant manufacturing for the local market in Brantford, Ontario. No sooner did the free trade deal get signed, they along with a lot of other US Manufacturers in Canada closed down the plant and ship all the production to existing US factories.I used to be a strong believer in free trade, but from what I have seen not only in North America but also Europe and the 3rd world, my faith has waned. Everybody knows Burberry’s, the famous English clothing maker, not as clearly publicized is the fact that they have recently closed down a UK factory and shipped the production to Eastern Europe. If had anything to say on this it would be very simple : Go ahead, make your raincoats in Hungary, but damned wells sell them there too.