Obama to visit Chattanooga Tuesday; president to tour Amazon fulfillment center

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

photo President Barack Obama speaks at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, Mo., in this file photo.

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President Barack Obama will bring his campaign tour to promote middle class jobs to Chattanooga on Tuesday with a visit to the Amazon fulfillment center in Chattanooga.

The White House announced tonight that the president will tour the Amazon distribution center on Discovery Drive where he will outline his plan for a better bargain for the middle class.

"Tuesday's speech will focus on manufacturing and high wage jobs for durable economic growth, and the President will discuss proposals he has laid out to jumpstart private sector job growth and make America more competitive, and will also talk about new ideas to create American jobs," a White House staffer said.

In a speech today in Galesburg, Ill., Obama cast himself as the champion for middle-class Americans struggling to make ends meet. He chided Washington for having "taken its eye off the ball" and declared that the economy would be the "highest priority" of his second term.

Amazon opened its 1 million-square-foot warehouse in the Enterprise South Industrial Park in 2011 and announced plans last year to expand the Chattanooga complex and the nearby distribution center in Charleston, Tenn., to employ up to 5,000 employees during the year-end holiday season.The Amazon expansions were the biggest single job additions in Tennessee two years ago.

The distribution center is the size of 17 football fields and handled more than 9 million items during the holiday season.