The outlook for Forster Inc. employees last week: not good. Federal aid for retraining appears to have eluded them.

Assistance under the Trade Act is assistance of the best sort, to retrain workers whose jobs have gone south, gone elsewhere in the all-too-familiar shift of manufacturing beyond U.S. shores.

If we’re going to do business beyond our borders with countries that pay their workers dimes for what our workers were paid dollars, the least we can do is retrain the U.S. workers put out of work by this cruel shift of emphasis.

Earlier this year, former employees of Strong Wood Products were denied similar benefits. The denial in that case came because the company didn’t substantiate that they had shifts in production or that there was more importation by major companies during that time, according to the feds.

But the number of jobs lost in the wood products industry would seem to say otherwise.

Certification would have provided an elaborate system of aid for qualified workers, including months of financial support while a worker retools, travel money to apply for jobs out of the area and a host of employment-related services.

In denying workers the backing afforded by the Trade Act, we’re taking away the future. The opportunity to retrain with a financial safety net in place lets workers plan for the next step with an eye to obtaining skills that might be marketable in a new economy.

Without the safety net, they’re scrambling for a declining number of jobs still here that utilize their skills or taking jobs that don’t require special skills and probably pay less. Either way, both the workers and Maine lose golden opportunities to restructure and advance.


A Catch 22
Last month a dozen former employees of defunct H.G. Winter & Sons, Inc. woodturning plant were given the word: They might be eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance, including up to 130 weeks of unemployment compensation.

While other plants have been denied, the Kingfield plant was certified.

But even the certification came with plenty of hurdles and a diabolical Catch 22.

Before approval came, workers seeking unemployment compensation also had to seek work. If they found suitable work, however, quitting to take advantage of the retraining opportunity would probably cost them the opportunity.

In other words, after getting laid off, if they looked for a job and found it, they aren’t elibible for retraining. If they didn’t look for a job, they aren’t eligible for unemployment insurance.

The only winners here are workers who looked but didn’t find.

The program must allow more flexibility for the ambitious who manage to find new work in a troubled industry before retraining money is approved.
bstackhouse@sunjournal.com