Business owners and Democrats in Johnstown, Pa., want to fill jobs with imported Afghan workers instead of hiring their American neighbors in the town once home to the Bethlehem Steel Corporation.
Marie Mock, a Democrat who is the deputy mayor on the Democrat-run city council, justified the planned replacement in a Facebook post, according to a January 7 report in the local newspaper, the Tribune-Democrat:
The reason I was told this is even being explored is that there is a lack of workers to fill jobs. I’m not just talking about service industry jobs, but good-paying jobs … some are union jobs, too. Look around and ask business owners. It’s all over the news, too. Help wanted signs are posted everywhere. The comment I hear is that people don’t want to work, and I agree.
[…] I’m going to say this, and if you want to jump down my throat, go ahead … but our own citizens aren’t ambitious enough to get off their a$$es and get a job and suport (sic) themselves and their families. Face it, we’re turning into a lazy country waiting for the next handout. So why not open it up to folks that want to work at any job, and will do it gladly? The folks they’re looking to relocate are skilled. Just stop with the stereotype of Middle Easterners.”
Mock did not return calls.
The plan is very unpopular in the town where there are fewgood jobs.
Most of the city’s jobs disappeared when the steel plant was gradually closed starting in 1973. Also, the town gets little investment because the federal government’s free trade policies reward job-creating investment in cheaper, foreign countries. And the federal government further deters investment by providing wealthy coastal investors with roughly one million new migrants each year in the investors’ familiar home states of California, New York, Florida, Texas, and other coastal states. Local retailers have also lost jobs to online sales.
Neil Munro