Obama Pledges To Protect Workers In Economic And Trade Policies [View All]

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/7916

The state of Wisconsin has become a major battleground between the two democrats vying for the Presidency. Illinois Senator Barack Obama fired the first salvo on Wednesday. Jesse Russell reports from Wisconsin.

Senator Barack Obama took time to hit back at critics at an auto plant in Janesville Wisconsin on Wednesday. The Illinois Senator currently battling former First Lady Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Presidential nomination laid out his economic plan before members of the United Auto Workers union. He took Clinton head on in his speech criticizing her for supporting President Bill Clinton’s passing of the North American Free Trade Agreement:

: In the years after her husband signed NAFTA, Senator Clinton would go around saying how great it was and how many benefits it would bring. Now that she is running for President she says we need a time out on trade, no one knows when this time out will end…

Obama said that if he is elected President he will not sign a trade agreement unless it offers protections for the environment and U.S. workers. He also vowed to pass a bill he co-authored with Illinois Senator Dick Durbin that would reward companies with tax cuts if they invest in American jobs while ending incentives for companies that do not.

Obama said he recognized that in order for Americans to keep jobs the government needs to invest in workers and infrastructure for the coming era of green jobs.

: If our government is there to support you and give you the assistance you need to retool and transition, then this plant will be here for another hundred years.

The speech came as Obama prepares for the Wisconsin primary on February 19. Clinton will start stumping in Wisconsin on Thursday.