With our nation’s economic crisis front and center in the presidential campaign, local business and labor leaders, joined by elected officials, today kicked off a statewide tour of “Keep it Made in America” Town Hall meetings. Announced in the lobby of the United Steelworkers International headquarters by International Vice President Tom Conway, the tour will focus on the need to save U.S. manufacturing jobs and overcome the devastating impact of the U.S. trade deficit.

Sponsored by the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), the tour will make four stops across Pennsylvania as part of a national, nine-city fall 2008 “Keep it Made in America” Town Hall tour held ahead of Election Day.  The comprehensive campaign, including broadcast ads and the release of a new educational video, targets voters in key battleground states where manufacturing job loss has become a key issue. 

The United States has lost more than 3.5 million manufacturing jobs since 2000, and more than 40,000 factories have closed in the past 10 years. Every state has lost jobs, with Pennsylvania shedding more than 207,400 factory jobs since 2000.

The Town Hall programs will encourage voters to press presidential and congressional candidates on their commitment to saving American manufacturing jobs, enforcing U.S. trade laws, and firmly addressing illegal trade practices on the part of countries like China. 

Watch a new AAM video about the issue starring USW member Kathy Garrison below and find out more about the tour here.