By Beacon Staff
Robert Morrison is angry — a rage that has only increased since he lost his job in December 2018 at the now-defunct Siemen’s plant in Burlington.
The plant ended operations a few days before Christmas and has stood vacant ever since, partially obscured by weeds as tall as the company sign.“They took a factory that had been in Burlington since 1870 and flushed it down the drain,” said Morrison of Burlington.
Morrison was a guest speaker at a brief campaign stop Wednesday evening (Oct. 7) for outgoing U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack.
Loebsack, who is retiring from the U.S. Congress at the end of the year, was not campaigning for himself. Instead, he stumped for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Theresa Greenfield, congressional candidate Rita Hart, and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.“We need products made in America,” Loebsack said.
Morrison, a 31-year-veteran machinist for Siemens, has been a prominent critic of the plant closure and made sure every presidential candidate who came through Burlington heard his story. The closure marked the end of Siemens' 148-year run as a major employer offering quality wages (average $25 an hour) and benefits in the community. It acquired Dresser-Rand before the closure.
"This difficult decision was made as part of a necessary global plan to enable Siemens to meet the competitive pressures in the energy market by reducing costs while best serving our customers," said company spokesperson Andrew Gumbiner at the time of the closure.
In November of 2018, Bloomberg reported Siemens planned to cut 6,900 jobs worldwide, with most of the layoffs coming from its power and gas division. Many of those jobs were outsourced to other countries.
“We need to pursue a pro-American worker tax and trade strategy. Something the president said he was going to do, but hasn’t done,” Loebsack said, speaking from the gazebo near Bluff Harbor Marina.
“Bring back critical supply chains to America. We can do the whole supply chain in America if we have a president like Biden.”
Photo by William Smith
U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack discusses bringing manufacturing jobs back to America on Wednesday while stumping for the Joe Biden/Kamala Harris presidential ticket in Burlington