Trade Activism
On Labor Day 2008, Rowe launched a website, MikeRoweWorks.com, which is focused on the decline in the blue collar trades and the crumbling state of the infrastructure. A trade resource center has been launched and provides information, resources, and forums for people interested in learning about, or pursuing a career in, the trades, as well as a new blog aggregator for the trades and construction industry called the "Trades Hub", which launched in April 2011.
On September 19, 2010, Mike Rowe and the Association of Equipment Manufacturers started a grassroots campaign called “I Make America”. The campaign aims to create jobs in the manufacturing sector by encouraging infrastructure investment and export agreements. The group argues that this will improve the economy and global competitiveness of the United States.
Mike Rowe has contributed video content to The Alabama Construction Recruitment Institute's trade-worker recruiting campaign GoBuildAlabama.com, culminating in an Iron Bowl-themed commercial broadcast on local CBS affiliates during Thanksgiving weekend 2010.
In May 2011, Rowe testified on the issue before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
Rowe sent a letter to President Obama at the start of his first term but did not receive a reply. During the 2012 Presidential elections, Rowe contacted GOP candidate Mitt Romney and appeared with him on September 26, 2012, at a campaign event in Ohio. Despite appearing at Romney's campaign appearance, Rowe argued he was not technically endorsing Romney.
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Famous quotes containing the word trade:
“People run away from the name subsidy. It is a subsidy. I am not afraid to call it so. It is paid for the purpose of giving a merchant marine to the whole country so that the trade of the whole country will be benefitted thereby, and the men running the ships will of course make a reasonable profit.... Unless we have a merchant marine, our navy if called upon for offensive or defensive work is going to be most defective.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)