“Bass Exit Hits Hard” on the Sun Journal Dec. 20 front page should not surprise Bass workers or anyone else in Maine. The closing of factories and mills continues.

When I was a columnist for a local paper, I criticized a fair trade agreement passed by the U.S. Congress which I thought would send jobs overseas. Then U.S. Sen. Ed Muskie sent a letter to the newspaper defending the fair trade agreement.

Well, Sen. Muskie was wrong. The ordinary people Muskie represented no longer have jobs. There is little manufacturing left in Maine.

Today, U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud is working to stop job losses due to fair- and free-trade agreements. Rep. Michaud knows the problem because he has worked in the Maine paper industry for years. He has also seen what has happened to other manufacturing jobs.

I will not be surprised if the Rumford paper mill closes to be replaced by a paper mill in China. After all, GM and Ford are setting up business in China.

My advice to a young friend working at the Rumford paper mill two years ago was: Get some kind of education outside the industry. Your job will not be there forever. The handwriting is on the wall.

With the announcement of the Bass closing, just before Christmas, and the closing of other mills and factories in Maine, workers must understand they need some kind of education outside their respective industries.

Tom Fallon, Rumford

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