USW Joins School Book Paper Trade Case to Fight Unfair Imports

Commission hearing to rule whether tariffs to continue in September

Washington, D.C. – USW-represented paper workers at one of the world’s largest production plants of lined school paper notebooks that’s run by MeadWestvaco, joined a public hearing on Jul. 25 at the International Trade Commission (ITC) to witness a fight for their livelihoods aimed at stopping unfair imports being dumped in the U.S. from China, Indonesia and India.

“My father, two brothers-in-law and my three kids have all worked at our MeadWestvaco paper converter plant,” Local 10-1442 President Mitch Heaton declares. “And among the 350 workers currently employed – there are many husbands, wives and young families who depend on this major employer in Alexandria, PA., to sustain our community and economic lives.”

USW paper workers at MeadWestvaco’s Pennsylvania plant join USW representatives outside the International Trade Commission hearing room in Washington, D.C. - (left to right): Holly R. Hart, assistant director, legislative dept.; Mitch Heaton, LU 10-1442 president; Ernest (Billy) Thompson, Director, USW Dist. 8; Sheldon Port, LU 10-1442; Ed Kemick, USW Dist. 10 staff representative; and Gregory Ullom, LU 10-1442.

The stakes are enormous in the antidumping trade case filed last October by the Association of American School Paper Suppliers that will not only affect the MeadWestvaco workers, but about 200 other USW-represented workers at nearby Roaring Spring Blank Book Co. in Pennsylvania where 200 are employed.

The final vote by the six commissioners of the ITC to uphold preliminary tariff levels on imports is scheduled on or shortly after Sept. 1, 2006.

Holly R. Hart, Assistant Director for the USW Legislative Dept., testified before the six commissioners of the ITC in support of the petition by MeadWestvaco and two other domestic companies making school notebooks. “As a consequence of imports, employment in the U.S. school notebook industry has declined significantly during the period of investigation, as did hours worked and total wages paid, and there’s the additional fact that our workers have been forced to give major wage and benefit concessions,” she said.

She accused box retail store representatives from Target Corp., Staples Inc., and Walgreens Co., who were also at the ITC hearing – as the importers of the dumped below cost notebooks. “The big box retailers are willing to see hundreds of Americans permanently lose their jobs so that their quarterly per share profits might go up by a fraction of a cent by importing illegally dumped and subsidized school notebooks.” Hart stridently added: “Shame on them.”

Ernest (Billy) Thompson, Director, USW District 8 in Kentucky and newly-appointed chair of the MeadWestvaco multi-plant company national committee, also participated in the hearing with Local 10-1442 members Mitch Heaton, Gregory Ullom  and Sheldon Port from the plant in Pennsylvania. Thompson said the current high tariffs placed on imports by the U.S. Commerce Dept. following the preliminary investigation, “confirm that unlawful dumping and subsides are harming the U.S. industry.”