Unions on USMCA: ‘Working people made it better’

January 28, 2020 by

Minnesota’s fair-trade movement has kept the heat on members of Congress, and it paid off with improved labor provisions in the USMCA.

President Trump is expected to sign the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA) into law at a White House ceremony Wednesday. While it’s sure to be a victory lap for the president, the nation’s top labor leader says much of the credit for getting the deal done should go to working people.

“Make no mistake, we demanded a trade deal that benefits workers and fought every single day to negotiate that deal; and now we have secured an agreement that working people can proudly support,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said.

Senators voted Jan. 16 to approve the USMCA, but the agreement faced its toughest test earlier in the House, where labor-friendly Democrats won a majority in 2018 midterm elections.

After trade ambassadors for the U.S., Mexico and Canada signed the new pact in November 2018, the AFL-CIO and its allies in the fair-trade movement went to work, pushing lawmakers to demand significant improvements before signing off on the agreement.

The lobbying push, backed by phone calls and emails from thousands of union members across the country, resulted in the first U.S. trade agreement the AFL-CIO has endorsed since a 2001 deal with Jordan.

To improve on Trump’s initial effort, congressional Democrats added language making the USMCA’s labor standards more enforceable, including a rapid-response authority capable of investigating allegations of union-busting or other abuses firsthand.

Trumka called the final version of the USMCA “a vast improvement over both the original NAFTA and the flawed proposal brought forward in 2017.” The agreement also “eliminates special carve outs for corporations like the giveaway to Big Pharma in the administration’s initial proposal and loopholes designed to make it harder to prosecute labor violations,” he said.

While House Democrats managed to improve the USMCA, not all unions share Trumka’s enthusiasm.

In a letter to members of Congress, Machinists Union President Robert Martinez Jr. said the USMCA did not do enough to replace “the current trade template” that has bled the nation’s industrial sector of hundreds of thousands of jobs.

“As we have repeatedly said, to win the support of the IAM, the USMCA must make fundamental changes to NAFTA in order to curtail the massive outsourcing of work in aerospace and other manufacturing sectors to Mexico,” Martinez wrote.

Doug Williams, director of the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition, called the USMCA “the best of bad choices” from a labor perspective.

The agreement already has prompted Mexico to begin raising its labor standards, and the USMCA provides stronger mechanisms for monitoring and enforcement of standards in all three countries. But those mechanisms won’t mean much, Williams said, unless officials have the will to use them.

“On paper it looks great,” the longtime trade activist and Communications Worker said. “But it’s complicated, it’s time-consuming, and the entire process relies on the good faith of whatever U.S. administration is in charge of enforcement at any given time. So that makes our presidential elections even more important.”

Labor standards fared better than environmental standards in the USMCA’s final version. Notoriously undemocratic trade tribunals – known as “investor state dispute settlement” systems – are mostly phased out of the agreement, except for those protecting energy companies from pollution laws. And opponents point out that in the USMCA’s 2,000-plus pages, not once does it mention climate change.

“There’s a well-documented record of corporations using NAFTA to dodge environmental standards in the U.S. by shipping out to Mexico,” Williams said. “That’s still going to be a problem.”

While the effectiveness the USMCA and its new labor standards can only be judged over time, the Trump administration’s push to rewrite U.S. trade policy marches on.

Agreements with the United Kingdom, the European Union, Japan, India, Brazil, South Africa and the Philippines are in various stages of negotiations. The USMCA creates “a new standard” for any future agreement, Trumka said, thanks to the efforts of working people and their unions.

“President Trump may have opened this deal, but working people closed it,” Trumka added. “And for that, we should be very proud.”

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U.S. negotiators following TPP script in NAFTA 2.0 talks, observers warn

October 26, 2017 by

Two months into NAFTA renegotiation talks, the process is looking awfully familiar to labor and fair-trade observers – and not in a good way.

When his trade representatives opened talks with Canada and Mexico in August, President Trump pledged to deliver “a better deal for our workers.” But so far, Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition Director Kaela Berg said, Trump’s team seems intent on pushing a better deal for corporations that want to offshore jobs and decrease wages.

“The question remains as to whether we can expect a new era of international trade, or more of the same neoliberal policies that have brought American manufacturing to the brink of extinction, increased forced migration and decimated portions of the global economy,” Berg said.

Of particular concern to Berg and other fair-trade advocates is the administration’s push to preserve – and potentially expand – so-called Investor State Dispute Settlement systems, pioneered by the original agreement 23 years ago.

Earlier this month, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District joined a rally sponsored by the Communications Workers of America calling on Trump to remove ISDS’s from NAFTA. CWA argues they amount to a “private justice system for multinational corporations” and allow them to “challenge local, state and federal laws before a private panel of corporate lawyers, instead of in a country’s court system.”

“If the renegotiated NAFTA contains even stronger ISDS language, the scales will be forever tipped in favor of giant corporations and working families, family farmers, and small businesses will be unable to compete in a global marketplace,” Berg added.

Public outrage over ISDS systems was part of the reason the U.S. backed out of another NAFTA-style trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, last year.

But ISDS’s aren’t the only holdover from TPP talks, activists warned. Like TPP talks, NAFTA negotiations are taking place behind tightly locked doors, with no public access to negotiating texts.

“We must demand the sort of transparency in these negotiations that we fought so hard for during the TPP negotiations,” Berg said. “The same players, secret processes and dirty tricks are at play.”

One bright spot to emerge from the early renegotiation talks was Canada’s attempt to level the playing field for its workers by raising labor standards in Mexico and the U.S.

Canada negotiators pushed the U.S. to eliminate anti-union Right to Work laws and Mexico to target its corporate-sanctioned unions, notorious for negotiating raw deals for working people. Canada also wants Mexico and the U.S. to offer workers one year of paid family leave, as Canada does.

“If it isn’t fair for all of us, it won’t be fair for any of us,” said Celeste Drake, the AFL-CIO’s trade specialist. “After all, we don’t live or work in an isolated economy. We must bring up standards for working people in all three NAFTA countries.”

To join labor’s fight for a fair NAFTA, text TRADE to 235246.

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Unions weigh in on Trump’s plans to ‘modernize’ disastrous NAFTA trade deal

July 3, 2017 by

Since being established in 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement – better known as NAFTA – has triggered job losses, depressed wages and shifted more power to corporations.

Now, the Trump administration has notified Congress it plans to “modernize” the horrible trade deal, giving working families an historic opportunity to shape a better trade policy with our closest neighbors.

What might a better NAFTA look like?

The nation’s largest labor federation, the AFL-CIO, issued several recommendations last month, urging federal lawmakers to “begin constructing a Global New Deal for working families” in revisiting NAFTA this summer. The first step, labor leaders say, is to amend NAFTA in public, with broad input from workers and their organizations.

“This is more than just (about) trade,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told reporters during a media call last month. “We’ll fight hard to rewrite these rules so that workers will get a fair shot of getting more of what they produce.”

Other AFL-CIO’s recommendations include enforceable worker-rights guarantees in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, as well as strong “Buy America” provisions, long a top priority for the United Steelworkers and other industrial unions.

“Our position is simple: Unless steel is melted and poured in the U.S., it shouldn’t be covered” by NAFTA, Steelworkers President Leo Gerard said. “Does the country want 25 more years like the last 25 years, with a declining standard of living for workers in all three countries?”

Other union proposals include eliminating extrajudicial courts that give corporations an end around local governments, strengthening environmental protections and adding language that will protect consumers, crack down on corporate tax dodgers and prevent currency manipulation.

While Trump’s interest in renegotiating NAFTA has sparked some optimism for better trade policy, some fair trade activists warned against getting too excited. Already, Trump has “walked back” several of his trade-related promises from the campaign, including a pledge to name China a currency manipulator, Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition director Kaela Berg said.

The Fair Trade Coalition, which brings together labor, environmental, family-farm and other progressive groups, is mobilizing volunteers locally to hold Trump accountable during the NAFTA “modernization” process.

“He promised American workers … a new kind of trade deal that would put them first, ensure safety on the job site, raise wages and punish countries that manipulated their currency to gain unfair advantages in the marketplace,” Berg said. “President Trump has not kept his promises to working families.”

Corporate lobbyists, according to Berg, are already approaching NAFTA talks as an opportunity to revive the failed Trans-Pacific Partnership.

“We know that 500 of the corporate advisors responsible for the TPP have been consulted about the NAFTA negotiations, while labor, Congress and the public have once again been kept in the dark,” she said.

Meanwhile, Trump’s proposal to gut funding for the Environmental Protection Agency sums up the likelihood of a new NAFTA that includes enforceable environmental protections.

Still, the debate over NAFTA’s future is too important to sit out, Berg acknowledged.

“We must hold President Trump accountable for his promise to stop the damage that NAFTA continues to do,” she said. “We must demand that he put people and the planet before profits in the new NAFTA.”

– This article includes reporting by Mark Gruenberg of Press Associates International, a union news service.

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Kaela Berg: TPP is dead, but fight for fair trade isn’t over

December 15, 2016 by

web.fasttrack-KaelaBergMany of us are left reeling from the results of the 2016 election and what it will mean for this country moving forward. The future of U.S. trade policy is unclear, as is much of the political and economic landscape.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has officially been declared “dead.” That means that, in its current form, it will not come before Congress for a vote during a lame-duck session or under the incoming administration. That is a huge victory, one that is wholly due to the incredible work of our fair trade partners, both here in Minnesota and across the nation!

We defeated the TPP by taking our collective voices to the streets in our communities – and in the halls of Congress.

We were successful in pushing back votes on so-called “Fast Track,” also known as trade promotion authority (TPA), which did ultimately pass. We asked for our governing representatives to take a firm and public stand on TPA, the TPP and trade policy overall. Our fair trade champions did not let us down, promising full support in opposing the TPP, and also doing diligent work in Washington to urge their colleagues to do the same.

Around the TPP, we focused on public outreach and education, hosting joint events with our member organizations where we could engage in thoughtful dialogue with community, faith, labor, environmental and student groups to provide accurate information and strategic tools to broaden our mobilizing scope.

To everyone who helped us in this tireless and relentless work, I thank you, I am humbled by you, I see you and am honored to stand in solidarity with you.

So here we are, poised on the brink of a new presidential administration, and the TPP as we know it is no longer a threat. While we can all take a moment to savor and reflect on a job well done, we still have more battles on the horizon.

As a result of Brexit – the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union – negotiations for two other massive, looming trade agreements have stalled. But those agreements, the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), will likely become a focus of the new administration.

Additionally, President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on promises to “tear up NAFTA” and redefine how the U.S. does trade. If he does, in fact, make good on those promises, our work will be cut out for us. Let me be clear: Trump’s pro-corporate trade agenda is not our trade agenda.

Working families still need us. Communities both here and across the globe that will suffer most under the repressive and violent nature of U.S. trade and military policy still need us. The necessity to address climate change is more critical than ever, and for that we are still needed.

These are just a few reasons for remaining vigilant in holding our government accountable to the will of the people rather than the siren call of capitalism, and why a shift towards fair and inclusive trade policy must prevail. While uncertainty abounds, I am confident that our coalition will take up with renewed resolve, energy and dedication the call to action.

– Kaela Berg is director of the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition, which unites more than 40 Minnesota labor, faith, environmental, social justice and family farm organizations working in support of trade policy that respects working people, family farmers, the environment and democracy. Learn more about the organization on its Facebook page.

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Unions, environmental groups brace for lame-duck fight over Trans Pacific pact

October 27, 2016 by

call-congress-today-to-stop-tpp_blog_post_fullwidthOn 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 make one last-ditch attempt to push the sprawling, NAFTA-style Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement through Congress during the “lame-duck” session, possibly as soon as this month.

If that happens, fair-trade activists will be ready to push back.

Already, more than 90 organizations, including the AFL-CIO, are planning to flood the congressional switchboard Nov. 16 with phone calls in opposition to the TPP. Two weeks later, unions and labor federations from across the country will lobby together in Washington, D.C., making their final case against the deal, which “would be incredibly devastating to working people here and across the globe,” Kayla Berg of the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition told activists.

The meeting in Minneapolis, sponsored by the state’s Industrial Union Council, drew representatives of environmental and student groups, offering a glimpse of the broad-based opposition to the TPP, which was negotiated in secret by 12 member nations with Pacific borders.

Six of those 12 countries – Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Vietnam, Chile and Brunei – have low-wage economies. Labor unions have expressed concern that the agreement will only hasten the outsourcing of U.S. jobs and further the exploitation of workers in developing countries.

Unions also point to weak – or nonexistent – protections for workers who seek to organize in several TPP countries. It’s a complaint echoed by the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations, which point to equally weak environmental regulations.

Another shared concern: Extra- judicial “corporate courts” created by the TPP would empower global firms to fight local or state regulations they view as “barriers to trade,” including consumer protection laws, land-use regulations or buy-local procurement practices.

In fact, if TPP passes, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and other federal agencies would be forced to treat bidders from every TPP country as if they were U.S. bidders when making purchasing decisions.

It’s no surprise so many citizen groups are taking on the fight against the TPP, Machinists union representative Rick Ryan said. The only question, he said, is whether activists can ensure a victory that kills the TPP and, potentially, changes the way future trade deals are negotiated.

“We need to bring these groups together to build the power to stop TPP,” Ryan said. “Instead of fighting individual fights, we need to fight one big fight.”

For more information on the TPP, go to www.citizen.org/TPP.

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Safety expert weighs implications as job market shifts ‘from stability to precariousness’

May 6, 2016 by
Dr. John Howard

Dr. John Howard

The nature of work is changing dramatically, and it’s creating new challenges – and pitfalls – for regulators charged with protecting workers’ health and safety.

The highest-ranking official at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health called on academics gathered Wednesday at the University of Minnesota to dig deep into the implications of emerging economic trends like robotics and agency-based, temporary employment, as well as the potential use of “big data” to make workplaces safer.

“The government built all of our social-protection laws based on an old paradigm,” Dr. John Howard told about 75 professionals gathered at the Midwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety’s annual symposium. With a greater share of the U.S. workforce moving “from stability to precariousness,” he added, “the normal employer-employee relationship has eroded.”

Howard, who also serves as administrator of the World Trade Center Health Program, covered a wide range of issues and referenced a trove of published research in his 45-minute address.

No one knows exactly how many U.S. workers are employed in temporary jobs or other “non-traditional” arrangements, Howard said. But it’s definitely on the rise.

Research shows the 21st-century job market is characterized by uncertainty and ambiguity. Workers increasingly settle for short-term “gigs” rather than career-path jobs. Many find themselves at the mercy of sophisticated, “Just-in-Time” scheduling software that makes their shifts irregular and paychecks unpredictable. Layers of subcontractors and agencies often create murky managerial relationships.

In many ways, the emerging labor market looks increasingly like the construction industry, where tradespeople bounce from jobsite to jobsite and from employer to employer. That means regulators, Howard said, ought to cast a wider net for wage theft, misclassification of workers as “independent contractors” and other violations that plague construction work.

But worker-protection laws written in the mid-20th century aren’t always applicable in the modern age, when any coffee shop with wifi can serve as an office and Google Hangouts can take the place of a conference room. “We really have another definition of a workplace, and it’s a challenging one,” Howard said.

Meanwhile, global trade and automation continue to alter the type of work most Americans do.

It’s generally accepted, Howard said, that 47 percent of existing job categories will be subject to automation in the next two decades. And experts expect about 80 percent of the workforce soon will be employed in service-oriented work – jobs, Howard said, that usually require no more than a high-school degree.

“It may not be possible now to increase productivity through education,” Howard said, acknowledging that such an assertion flies in the face of predictions offered two decades ago by proponents of NAFTA and other free-trade agreements. “Economists are finding out that the benefits of trade don’t necessarily justify its cost,” he added.

Technology is also creating opportunities and challenges when it comes to protecting workers’ health and safety on the job.

Researchers in the field of occupational health are only beginning to understand the potential of new sensory technology that provides a constant stream of data from the jobsite to safety monitors – everything from air quality to the heart rates of workers on a factor floor. The “big struggle,” Howard said, is mining that data for indicators that accidents or other adverse events might be on the horizon.

Finding those indicators could amount to a major breakthrough in worker safety – and a much-needed one as well. Research suggests the changing nature of work – the shift “from stability to precariousness,” as Howard put it – comes with some serious health and safety risks for working people.

Studies suggest temporary workers have shorter life spans than those in career-path positions. Unpredictable work schedules may also be taking a toll on workers’ mental health. And when a patchwork collection of temp agencies and subcontractors provides labor for a single workplace, site-specific safety training is often inconsistent – and sometimes nonexistent.

“Workers have a more distant relationship with the people they work with, the people who can help navigate potential hazards,” Howard said, noting that temporary workers are less likely to report potential hazards – or try using collective action to improve their working conditions.

“They work for a temp agency,” Howard said. “They feel lucky just to have a job.”

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Kaela Berg: Trans-Pacific Partnership a threat to U.S. jobs

March 24, 2016 by
web.fasttrack-KaelaBerg

Kaela Berg is director of the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition.

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 as “NAFTA on Steroids,” the TPP will affect 40 percent of the world economy and continue the hemorrhaging of American jobs – jobs that we can ill afford to lose. The TPP already has been signed by representatives of all 12 countries involved, and it now awaits ratification by the various governing bodies of each participating nation.

The images of shuttered factories in once-thriving cities of industry are all too familiar in recent history. The lack of manufacturing that breeds a strong and steady economy in this country is astounding, and it leaves far too many able workers with few options. Working families today, are struggling to make ends meet, to send their children to college and to have the ability to retire not only to enjoy the fruits of so many years of labor, but to rest when their bodies need it most.

The effects of trade are woven into the fabric of our lives – in the quality of the air we breathe, the food we eat and the jobs we may or may not have.

The current and irresponsible way that giant corporations and governments negotiate international treaties will always result in dire consequences for the most vulnerable. I saw that firsthand during my two trips to Colombia last year.

The labor rights, human rights and environmental justice violations in Colombia were both alarming and a direct result of U.S. trade policy. The Labor Action Plan, which is a mechanism put in place supposedly to ensure the protection of workers under the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, is ineffective in its practical application. That’s no surprise, given the provision never had any “teeth” in its genesis. Even NAFTA had an outline that seemingly provided some protections for workers, but in fruition such protections were negligible.

Simply put, free trade agreements do not work for workers. Not here at home, and not in the countries in which we already trade. The TPP promises more of the same: more American jobs lost, more stagnant wages and more cheap and illegal goods flooding our markets. It keeps the scales tipped firmly in favor of the multinationals and keeps American workers participating in an involuntary race to the bottom.

Whether it’s picketing in response to being locked out of steel mills in Pennsylvania for months at a time or standing up for miners on the Iron Range, as workers we must do what we do best: Stand Up, Fight Back! We cannot allow another trade agreement to continue the rampant eradication of our jobs, the stagnation of our wages and the theft of our opportunity to offer our children a better way of life.

In a world where globalization is inevitable and also an amazing opportunity, we must be mindful of creating a path for fair trade if we are to nourish and grow an economy that works for all people. There is something that each of us can do. This election season I urge you to reach out to your lawmakers and initiate a dialogue asking them to vote against the TPP. A vote against the TPP is a vote for working families!

– Kaela Berg is director of the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition. Founded in 1991, the organization unites family farmers, unions and environmental groups to promote and support fair trade policy and global justice.

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Public finally gets a look at TPP – and it isn’t pretty

November 5, 2015 by

web.tpp-aboveLabor, environmental and other fair-trade activists are getting their first look at the Tran-Pacific Partnership, released to the public overnight. Their initial reaction?

It’s worse than expected.

“It’s absolutely not a progressive trade deal,” Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition director Kaela Berg said after an early analysis of the text.

“It’s clear that TPP will perpetuate offshoring of our jobs and stagnation of our wages. There aren’t strong, enforceable labor and environmental standards, which have been a constant worry since NAFTA.”

[Tell your members of Congress to oppose the TPP! Click here to take action.]

The public release of the TPP, a 12-nation trade agreement covering about 40 percent of the global economy, starts the clock on a 90-day review period, after which Congress may approve or reject – but not amend – the pact.

Berg said the Fair Trade Coalition, which unites family-farm, environmental and labor groups, would use the review period to educate the public about what’s at stake in the TPP – and to lobby Minnesota’s Congressional delegation to vote “no.”

All seven DFLers in Congress voted against so-called “fast track” authorization, which positioned TPP for a simple up-or-down vote, over the summer, and Berg was cautiously optimistic they would vote to reject TPP as well. Republican Reps. Tom Emmer and Erik Paulsen are “poster boys for corporate free-trade,” she added, and likely to vote “yes.”

“All the officials are going to want to look at the text and see what’s in there,” Berg said.

Many union officials were busy doing the same today, leading to a chorus of warnings about the TPP’s impact on jobs, wages, public health and more.

“This much is clear,” said Rick Ryan of the Minnesota State Council of Machinists after a first read through the TPP. “The rich get richer as we race to the bottom.”

Citizens Trade Campaign, a fair-trade advocacy group, said the TPP would force U.S. workers to compete with workers abroad who, in some member countries, earn less than $1 per hour. It also would ban laws that encourage government agencies to buy American-made or locally made products.

“TPP will do nothing to promote manufacturing jobs here in the U.S.” Bob Ryan, a Minnesota-based representative of the United Steelworkers, said. “In fact, it will promote more job loss through outsourcing to low wage countries.”

Nurses warned of a provision in the TPP that protects multinational pharmaceutical companies by delaying the introduction of generic drugs into the market, making health care more expensive and life-saving medicines harder to access. In fact, the TPP would roll back some of the protections for access to medicine included in trade agreements negotiated during the George W. Bush administration.

National Nurses United President RoseAnn DeMoro likened the provisions to “gifts to the billionaire drug companies,” and called the TPP “a cruel and disgraceful threat to the lives of millions of people.”

The TPP also threatens U.S. sovereignty, critics said. It would grant corporations new powers to challenge U.S. laws, regulations and court decisions in an extrajudicial tribunal known as the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) court.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, the highest-ranking labor leader in the U.S., pledged unions would “join with our allies to defeat the TPP.”

“From what we have already seen, it is clear that the threats of this expansive new agreement outweigh its benefits – for good jobs, for democracy, for affordable medicines, for consumer safety, and for the environment,” Trumka said.

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Photos: Workers keep up fight to #StopTPP

October 2, 2015 by

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 secretive talks.

Locally, members of the Communications Workers of America and the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition raised awareness with a banner strung across the I-94 Hamline Avenue bridge during rush hour, and they distributed fliers to commuters focusing on the threat TPP poses to food safety and labeling laws.

Cars zip past CWA Local 7250 members Charli Haataja (L) and Chad Perkins on Hamline Avenue.
Activists hand out hundreds of fliers on the Hamline Avenue bridge.
IUE-CWA Local 1140 members Dale Foster and Howard Terry hoist a banner over I-94 urging commuters to take note of risks posed by the TPP.
Doug Paul of CWA Local 7250 holds the sign, while Doug Williams of the same local passes out fliers.
Zach Tussler, a member of IUE-CWA Local 1140, offers informational fliers to commuters warning about food safety risks posed by the TPP.

“The TPP would require us to allow food imports if the exporting country’s safety regime is deemed ‘equivalent’ to our own, even if it violates our food safety laws,” the flier says. “These rules would effectively outsource domestic food inspection to other countries.

“Under the TPP, any U.S. food safety rule on pesticides, labeling or additives that is higher than international standards would be subject to challenge as ‘illegal trade barriers.’ The U.S. could be required to eliminate these rules and allow in the unsafe food under threat of trade sanctions.”

For more information on the TPP: facebook.com/fairtradenow.

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With Fast Track vote looming, Minnesotans join ‘last-ditch effort’ to sway Wisconsin rep

June 10, 2015 by
Union members from Minnesota and Wisconsin stand together against Fast Track and the TPP outside Rep. Ron Kind's Eau Claire offices.

Union members from Minnesota and Wisconsin stand together against Fast Track and the TPP outside Rep. Ron Kind’s Eau Claire offices.

 

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – In a showing of cross-border solidarity, fair trade activists from Minnesota bolstered the ranks of local activists protesting today outside the offices of U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, a lead proponent of legislation that would “fast track” more bad trade deals that threaten U.S. jobs.

Fast Track, or “trade promotion authority,” passed the Senate last month, and the bill could draw a vote in the House as early as tomorrow.

That means labor and environmental activists are in full campaign mode, urging lawmakers like Kind, a Democrat from Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, to reject the measure, which would limit Congress’ ability to influence trade agreements negotiated in secret, like the 1,000-plus page Trans-Pacific Partnership.

[Click here to tell your member of Congress to vote NO on Fast Track.]

“It covers 40 percent of the world’s GDP and 800 million people, and all we know about it has come through leaked documents,” said Bruce O’Brien of Altoona, Wis. “It’s a big deal, and it’s not just about trade. It’s about our sovereignty.”

Current proposals in the TPP would allow multinational corporations to challenge local ordinances governing food safety, setting wage and lending standards or establishing “buy-local” procurement policies – and to do so in extrajudicial trade tribunals.

web.RonKindFastTrack-marchingUnion members from Wisconsin said they’ve reached out to Kind with concerns that Fast Track would pave the way for more NAFTA-style, job-killing trade agreements.

“Labor standards, environmental rules – we can’t control those things in other countries,” AFSCME Local 1914 member Judy Gattin said. “American labor can’t compete with child labor.”

Don Stuttgen, a retired Communications Worker, said he’s urged Kind to “keep our businesses here in the U.S. Don’t give away all our jobs.”

But so far those concerns haven’t moved Kind out of the “yes” column on Fast Track. Today’s action, demonstrators said, is a reminder that they aren’t giving the congressman a pass.

“We’ve got to do things like this to make our voice heard, to hold him accountable,” O’Brien said.

A delegation of about 15 Minnesotans, including several members of the Communications Workers of America and activists from the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition, traveled here today to support the Wisconsin action.

“I think it’s important for union members to stand in solidarity, even if it’s across state lines,” CWA Minnesota State Council President Mona Meyer said. “This is an international trade deal that will affect everybody.”

Meyer said Minnesota’s DFLers are solidly opposed to Fast Track, and activists were looking for ways to help out elsewhere.

“We’re taking a stand for all Americans, all working families,” she said. “It’s worth our last-ditch effort to see if we can help flip a yes to a no.”

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