Fresh off accepting the nomination in Philadelphia, Hillary Clinton and running mate Tim Kaine continued their bus tour across Pennsylvania. The focus is on jobs and manufacturing and to win over blue collars workers, many who feel they’ve been left behind.
“We have the most productive workers in the world,” shouted Clinton as she fired up the crowd inside Johnstown Wire Technologies.
Joined by Kaine, his wife and former President Bill Clinton they got a tour of the century old wire mill that is currently employs about 250 workers.
“We barely survived the recession, but in the last eight years business has been good, ” admitted Jim Barber, JWT General Manager of Operations Service.
Clinton criticized Republican nominee saying he has no plan, “During his speech at the RNC, Donald Trump’s speech was filled with more insults for me and less jobs for all of you.”
Outside the wire mill a few dozen protesters gathered in the pouring rain. Chants of “Remember Benghazi” and “Send Her to Jail” could be heard outside the gates.
Some of the people protesting were union workers who feel Washington has let them down and that is it time for a change.
One man told us he is a democrat, but this year he is switching parties. “Trump will create jobs, he has a track record. What has Hillary created. Just a bunch of lies.”
A Clinton aide said the tour in Johnstown and later into Ohio is an effort to meet with working class voters on what can be considered “Trump turf.”
During her speech, Clinton said if elected she would put together the biggest investment in manufacturing jobs since World War Two.
She promised to enact an exit tax to penalize companies that take jobs overseas. Another proposal is to create what she called an “infrastructure bank” so that annual spending for it would not depend on money from Congress.
The United Steelworkers Union has fully endorsed Clinton and while many workers vowed to vote for her in November, there are still many blue-collar workers in Cambria County who have yet to be convinced.
