LORAIN — Lorain County has been hit hard by America’s economic downturn and Barack Obama knows it.

The presidential hopeful visited the National Gypsum wallboard plant in Lorain on Sunday morning to speak to about 100 employees, their families and local officials about the struggling economy and the need to invest in American jobs.

After a plant tour, Obama stood in the center of the chilly plant and took part in a town hall-style meeting where he strayed little from his single, driving theme of promoting American jobs.

“Our economy’s been struggling,” he said. “I don’t have to tell you about this, because folks around here have been directly impacted by the changes in our economy; whether it was the loss of steel jobs or the closing of the Ford plant that was here for so long.”

In contrast to his recent speeches — which have often featured frequent bursts of applause, and call and response chants of “yes, we can!” — Obama’s tone at National Gypsum was subdued, serious and often unflinchingly pragmatic.

“If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll acknowledge that we can’t stop globalization in its tracks, and some of these jobs are not going to be coming back.

“But what I refuse to accept is that we have to stand idly by while workers watch their jobs get shipped overseas,” he said.

Obama seldom waited for applause and greeted the applause he did receive with quiet consideration before continuing on to his next point.

Building on a recent theme, Obama took the speech at the plant as an opportunity to blame the loss of jobs and other economic hurdles faced by Lorain County — and the country — on the North America Free Trade Agreement.

Obama criticized NAFTA as an “unfair trade deal that puts special interests above workers’ interests,” and said it was responsible for the loss of
1 million jobs across the country and “50,000 here in Ohio.”

Several Gypsum employees cited a candidate’s opposition to NAFTA as a principal factor in deciding for whom to vote.

Bill Burbank — who has been a machinist at the plant for 20 years — said that he liked Obama’s plans for fighting outsourcing, but that he doesn’t know if Obama can convert his words into actions.

“I’d like to see if he’s got an actual game plan,” Burbank said. “He said, ‘We have to make a change.’ Who’s ‘we’? Isn’t it him?”

Obama also called out his rival, Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, as a proponent of NAFTA.

He quoted Clinton praising NAFTA in her book and in speeches like one delivered in 2004 where she said, “NAFTA has been good for America.”

“I want to be very clear,” Obama said. “I don’t think NAFTA has been good for America and I never have.”

But when responding to a question from the audience about NAFTA, Obama admitted that he would not repeal the agreement, saying it would “result in more job loss in the Untied States than job gains.”

Instead, he said, he would amend NAFTA so it would have stronger environmental and labor agreements.

“I’ve seen what happens to a community when a factory closes and jobs move overseas,” he said before pledging to never “sign any trade agreement as president that does not have protections for our environment and protections for American workers.”

At National Gypsum — where the slipping housing market has resulted in lower prices for wallboard and a reduction in hours for workers — these issues were particularly significant.

“Gypsum is a company that has felt the pinch of the housing crunch,” Lorain Mayor Tony Krasienko said.

Dave Carroll, who has worked at Gypsum for three years, agreed with Krasienko, saying that what he wanted most was a president who could build the economy and stimulate the housing market.

“A lot of us here have gone from working seven days a week, down to four,” Carroll said. “A few of us are low men on the totem pole and worry about keeping our jobs.”

Obama said he would implement two new plans to create manufacturing and industrial jobs.

The plans — an infrastructure development plan of $60 billion over 10 years and a green energy plan of $150 billion over 10 years — would bring millions of new jobs to the country and to Ohio, he said.

Obama said he will pay for these new plans by ending the war in Iraq, closing tax loopholes for corporations, taxing carbon emissions and “ending George Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.”

But in the end, Obama said, this will require more than an investment.

“It will require a new spirit of cooperation, innovation and shared sacrifice.

“We’ll have to remind ourselves that we rise and fall as one nation,” he said. “That a country in which only a few prosper is wrong and does not follow our ideals and our democracy, and that those of us who have benefited greatly from the benefits and blessings from this country have a solemn obligation to open the doors of opportunity, not just for our children, but to all of America’s children.”

Contact Michael Baker at 329-7128 or mbaker@chroniclet.com.

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