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December 17, 2007

Next president must keep jobs in the U.S.

James A. Kimble

Editor's note: This is the 13th in a series of stories examining the top issues of concern for The Eagle-Tribune's 154 voters participating in the presidential campaign coverage project. To view the previous stories, go to www.eagletribune.com and click on "On the Issues."

Stop giving U.S. companies incentives to export jobs overseas.

Provide more job training to adjust to a changing, global economy. And figure out how workers can get and keep quality health insurance, even if they switch jobs every few years.

Those are some of the things local voters say they want to hear from presidential hopefuls as they near the finish line to New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary Jan. 8.

While the next president can't create new jobs, voters say, the next president needs to maintain a pro-American-worker philosophy when vetting trade agreements and legislation.

"They should take a leadership role in promoting the United States worker," said Raven Gregg, a 42-year-old library aide and sales consultant from Chester. "We are the best work force in the world, and the president should not be promoting cheaper labor elsewhere."

The Eagle-Tribune polled more than 150 voters from across 16 Southern New Hampshire towns. Forty percent of those voters ranked employment as one of their top 10 priorities when considering which candidate to support for president.

Gregg said she has been disappointed with this year's field of presidential contenders because none of them, in her view, has brought issues of employment and job security to the forefront of their campaign the same way they address the Iraq war or health care.

"There's a huge number of job opportunities in alternative energy," Gregg said. "Large oil companies or even high-tech companies could go into cottage industries with solar energy and wind power, and make these regular shop jobs. Let's get people trained to do it."

Voters say a number of related issues broached on the campaign trail | Social Security, retirement, health care | need to be addressed along with shoring up American jobs.

Noriko Yoshida-Travers, 46, a recreation director in Atkinson, said those issues include immigration.

"I'm not totally against American immigrants taking certain jobs that Americans do not want to do," she said. "The new president needs to handle the issue (of immigration) much better than the current president."

Yoshida-Travers said she also would like reforms that would take away incentives for U.S. companies to relocate overseas.

Christopher Goodnow, a real estate consultant from Salem, said the next president needs to set policies that encourage job growth and economic opportunity.

Goodnow, 44, said the U.S. is likely to have more job volatility than in decades past, and the government can play a role in encouraging growth with support in education and training.

"The economy for the next 50 years is going to be very different than the last 50 years," Goodnow said.

Portability of health insurance is another area the next president should be focusing on as workers move from one job to another over shorter time spans, according to voters.

Goodnow said he supports Republican Sen. John McCain because of his fiscal-conservative stance on government spending.

Joe Donahue, a 45-year-old carpenter from Derry, said he supports Democratic Sen. John Edwards. Regardless of whom Edwards appears in front of, he discusses the importance of supporting the American middle class through unionized jobs and protection for workers, Donahue said.

He said he believes Edwards is the most realistic about providing every American with affordable health insurance. Since meeting the candidate five years ago, he has joined Edwards' state leadership team, working for his election. The next president, Donahue said, can show support to U.S. workers by adopting a higher standard when signing trade agreements.

"We're signing trade agreements with countries without any worker protection. They are getting paid a dollar an hour," Donahue said. "We're never going to compete against that."

"The next president needs to make sure these trade agreements work for the American people," Donahue said. "If you're going to sign an agreement, you should protect the American worker first, then protect workers in other countries as well."

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