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On the night of the third presidential debate, a small group of activists gathered inside a union hall in Minneapolis, but their focus was not on the outcome of the 2016 election. It was on what might happen between Nov. 8 and the inauguration, specifically when it comes to trade. President Obama is expected to […]
Trade. It may not be at the front of your mind today, or even most days, but it should be. After 20 years of living with the disastrous impacts of NAFTA and every trade agreement since, we are now faced with the largest free trade agreement we’ve yet seen, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Often touted […]
Workers haven’t given up the fight to stop the latest – and largest – free-trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. As diplomats from 12 Pacific Rim countries gathered in Atlanta yesterday for negotiations on the sprawling, NAFTA-style trade pact, fair-trade advocates across the country took to the streets, warning the public about what’s at stake in […]
The St. Paul City Council took up the fight to stop fast track Wednesday, when members unanimously approved a resolution “opposing the extension of bad trade policies.” “The people of the City of Saint Paul have the best chance to benefit from pending trade and investment agreements only if the process by which they are […]
More than a year after sending proponents of fast track back to the drawing board, Congress is poised to consider a modified version of the trade measure this spring. But unions and their allies in the fair-trade movement say the “new” fast track bill amounts to little more than lipstick on a pig. Like previous […]
In the early 1990s, Doug Williams was serving as president of Local 1140 of the International Union of Electrical Workers, an industrial union that has since folded into the Communications Workers. Williams and other union activists, particularly in the industrial sector, were in full campaign mode at the time, handing out fliers during shift changes, […]
Union members today called on U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar to take a stand against efforts in Congress to put job-killing free-trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on the fast track. Members of the Communications Workers of America marked a worldwide day of action against the TPP – the NAFTA-style trade agreement being negotiated in […]
When are Keith Ellison and Michele Bachmann on the same side of an issue? When it comes to standing up for separation of powers and Congress’ ability to oversee trade policy that has a massive effect on us as constituents. In separate letters released Nov. 13, Rep. Bachmann and all five Democratic house members from […]
As negotiations on the latest U.S.-backed free-trade agreement resumed in Australia this week, U.S. Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota led a bipartisan appeal to President Obama, urging his administration to craft an deal that protects American jobs and workers’ rights worldwide. Franken, a DFLer, joined Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine in authoring a letter […]
If free-trade agreements like the forthcoming Trans-Pacific Partnership are in the public interest, then why are they negotiated in private? That’s the question supporters of the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition asked during a July 9 rally in Hopkins. The coalition of labor, environmental and agricultural organizations is mounting a public campaign to pressure the Obama […]
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