Snap-on Tools CEO Nick Pinchuk said Wednesday that President Trump’s call to “buy American, hire American” is like “music to the ears of manufacturers across the country.”
While visiting Snap-on’s Kenosha, Wisconsin, headquarters Tuesday, Mr. Trump signed an executive order targeting the H1-B visa program, which will make it harder for companies to recruit foreign workers at lower wages than qualified Americans.
Mr. Pinchuk said on “Fox & Friends” that employees were thrilled by Mr. Trump’s visit, which was Snap-on’s first visit from a sitting president in its 97 years of business.
“The consistent word or phrase that they said to me was, ’Thank you,’ which says a lot,” Mr. Pinchuk said of his employees.
“We think at Snap-on this is the seminal issue of our time, because we’re engaged in a global competition for jobs,” he continued. “It’s why 30 percent of manufacturing jobs … have been lost in several decades. It’s because we’re in a global competition and the only way to win is to be more capable than others.
“If the president says that he’s going to emphasize jobs … this is like music to the ears of manufacturers across the country,” he added.
When asked what American workers want from the president, Mr. Pinchuk answered, “Respect.”
“We believe the American strength is rooted in the ability to make things and fix things,” he said. “And part of the problem today is the respect for those jobs is in eclipse, the respect for the dignity of work is in eclipse. We view them as the consolation prize of our society, and if we can get our leaders to set the tone that they are not the consolation prize, but they are what they have always been: An American calling which will deliver us from evil.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.