AP Photo

For years, America's manufacturers shifted jobs to cheap labor markets across the globe. Under the mantra of "free trade" and goaded by the desire to keep shareholder profits soaring and the companies globally competitive, manufacturers first moved jobs and production to nearby low-wage pockets and then further and further offshore.

Michigan has been the star witness to the global shift in manufacturing jobs. Early in my first term, Electrolux told us there was nothing we could do to prevent them from moving their Greenville, Michigan, appliance business to Mexico. Since 1892, tiny Greenville had been the refrigerator capital, serving as home to Gibson, White, Frigidaire and Electrolux. Electrolux was the last to close, in 2004, and with it some 2,700 jobs...