By Gary Dickson — Originally, I did not intend to make last week”s column about poverty a continuation piece, but early last week when I read an article about the building of the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, I just couldn”t help but pick up this week where I left off last week. In the final paragraph of last week”s column I included a quote from Colorado Congressional candidate Dave Anderson. Anderson”s words were that, “Americans, not Chinese, must produce more of what Americans consume. Until the predatory drain of employment, income and technology is stopped there will be no recovery. “
Here is the difference between the America of the Great Depression and the America of this modern recession, depression or whatever it is. In 1933 when ground was broken on the Bay Bridge it was viewed as an amazing American project that would finally link the East Bay with the West after being a real public desire since the mid-1800s. As wonderful as that part of the project was, the other phenomenal aspect of the building the bridge was that it put thousands of people to work during the throes of the Great Depression.
The bridge contractor was Columbia Steel and the bridge builder was the American Bridge Company. Both organizations were subsidiaries of U.S Steel. While learning more about the construction of the original bridge I found the website called baybridgeinfo.org/history. On that website is a more than 16-minute video of a documentary film made during the construction of the bridge. I swear there must have been just one person narrating every documentary and newsreel made from the 1930s to the 1950s. It”s always the same voice. Anyway, the narrator followed a script that emphasized the American companies that supplied materials and the U.S. cities in which they came from.
Claudia Cowan, whose Sept. 20 article concerning the building of the new Bay Bridge stated “When its $6.3 billion replacement opens in two years, it will be an international affair from the bottom up, an example of massive outsourcing that has drawn both praise and criticism. Half a dozen countries contributed expertise or materials, none more so than China.”
The article mentions that, “Several thousand Chinese workers spent five years fabricating the steel used to construct the roadbeds, cable strands, and landmark tower for the single anchor suspension bridge set to open in 2013.” Bart Ney, a spokesman for the California Department of Transportation said, ” China was immensely helpful to getting this project built. They were able to turn the steel around and work directly with our own inspectors to make sure we met the specifications of what this bridge required.”
It just does not make sense to me that, right here in California, our own Department of Transportation, a state-government entity, would turn its back on American companies and American workers to allow what was originally thought to have obstacles that were nearly insurmountable and when completed was hailed as “an example of American ingenuity” replaced with roadbeds, cables and towers made in China.
Roger Ferch of the National Steel Bridge Alliance said, “Each job has a multiplier effect because not only do you lose the fabrication jobs, you lose those people paying taxes, those people buying groceries, those people buying clothing, and the list goes on.”
The Department of Transportation used Chinese steel and Chinese workers because they could save money. They could save money because the workers in China barely make enough money to survive on; they breathe polluted air and drink unsafe water because there are no standards like there are in America, especially in California.
I want to see America make a recovery, but Dave Anderson is right. We will never see better times in this country as long as we keep buying the bulk of our products from other countries and shipping our jobs to those other countries, too.
Gary Dickson is the publisher of the Record-Bee. Call him at 263-5636, ext. 24. Email him at gdickson@record-bee.com.
