Two bills would help bring jobs home

“We need to be exporting our products, not our jobs,” says Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) who, with Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), recently introduced the Bring Jobs Home Act (S. 2884 and H.R. 5542). Union and community activists are building support for that bill, as well as the Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act (H.R. 3596), as part of the AFL-CIO’s Bring Jobs Home campaign.

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The Bring Jobs Home Act will cut taxes for U.S. companies that move jobs and business operations to America from another country, as Master Lock has done. The legislation also will end tax loopholes that reward companies that ship jobs overseas. Pascrell says the bill will:

stop our tax code from providing corporate welfare by closing the loopholes that encourage outsourcing, and give incentives to businesses to reverse the flow of jobs back home. The light at the end of the economic recovery is powered by manufacturing; we cannot stand around while our manufacturing base continues to erode.

Specifically, the Bring Jobs Home Act allows companies to qualify for a tax credit equal to 20 percent of the cost associated with bringing jobs and business activity back to the United States. It closes a loophole that allows a company moving jobs overseas to deduct certain relocation costs. Click here to visit the United Steelworkers (USW) website and send a message to your lawmakers urging passage of the bill.

The other legislative focus in the Bring Jobs Home mobilization campaign, the call center bill, would bar companies that send call center jobs overseas from receiving federal grants and tax breaks. T-Mobile received $14.2 million in local and state subsidies in exchange for promises of employment and economic development for opening four of the seven centers it’s now closing.

The bill also would require companies to let you know where your call has been directed and you would have the option to be transferred back to a U.S. call center. Find out more from the Communications Workers of America (CWA) here.

Along with building support for the two bills, Bring Jobs Home activists are calling on lawmakers to:

• Address currency manipulation by other countries, which is a key driver of offshoring;
• Tax the overseas income of U.S. corporations the same way we tax their domestic income, so they can no longer lower their tax bill by shifting income and jobs overseas; and
• Push for fair trade policies that benefit workers—not just multinational corporations.

–http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Political-Action-Legislation/Two-Bills-Would-Help-Bring-Jobs-Home#.T-pCbuMHRQw.email