USW’s Parzino made a career of paper, politics and putting working folks first

March 2, 2018 by

Gerry Parzino at the District 11 offices in northeast Minneapolis.

Philip and Genevieve Parzino were working at Brown and Bigelow when they met in the 1920s. Eventually, they fell in love and married.

Their story may sound typical, but Genevieve and Philip were 12 and 13 years old when they met on that calendar factory floor. It’s a bit of family history their son Gerard never forgot as he pursued a 44-year career in the United Steelworkers Union, fighting to improve the lives of working people.

“Luckily, there were unions to change child labor laws,” he said. “Otherwise, I would have probably fallen into the same type of path.”

Instead, Gerry Parzino graduated from high school in 1974 and took a job at International Paper, where he became a member of St. Paul-based United Paperworkers International Union Local 264. (Today, it’s Steelworkers Local 264.)

Parzino served as the local’s secretary, vice president, president and business agent before taking a full-time job with Steelworkers District 11 almost 18 years ago. His focus there remained the paper industry, but Parzino rose through the ranks to become district sub-director for Minnesota and North Dakota.

Over that time, he and his wife, Joan, raised a family of three children, all of whom now have children of their own. Household chores are the only child labor any of them have ever known.

March 2 was Parzino’s last day on the job before retirement. He looked back on his career in this interview, edited for length and clarity.

UA: What’s your earliest memory, as a local agent or with the district, of tackling something big?

GP: Just after I was elected business agent in January 1995, the Waldorf paper mill’s contract was up, and the international staff wasn’t available to help much. I was a new business agent with 700-plus members at the plant – bigger than the whole local is now. That was a huge challenge, but we delivered that contract without a strike.

UA: It’s amazing to think the mill had more members then than the local does now. So much has changed in the industrial landscape here.

GP: I’ve gone through 10 permanent closures in the forest products industry, almost 1,100 members and families who’ve been affected. It’s just been devastating for families, and I’ve seen it more than any person would want to. Probably the most difficult was the Sartell local in 2012, with the explosion and fire (at the Verso Paper Mill) that burnt out of control for about 10 days. We lost a member in that fire; it was his first day back from a layoff recall. The combined loss of jobs and loss of life, that was really tough.

Parzino (L) showed a visitor from Denmark around the Waldorf paper mill in St. Paul during an international exchange event in 1995. (file photo)

UA: How are Steelworkers fighting back against job losses in the industry?

GP: We’ve been really proactive on illegal trade practices; we’ve won dozens and dozens of cases.

In 2015 we had a small group of workers who make a calcium carbonate slurry up in Cloquet, and their employer wanted to eliminate their pension and their rule of 90, cut their health care plan and give a zero wage increase. We had five guys that went on strike for four and a half months, and they brought that multinational corporation to its knees. It was a 100 percent successful strike, and those five workers stood for everybody in the industry.

UA: The international union also has been proactive in getting ready for inevitable greening of our global economy. How successful has that been?

GP: The bottom line is we really do have more in common, as labor and environmental groups, than we do in opposition. Steelworkers have always believed in strong health and safety, not only for ourselves but the communities we live and work in.

UA: A lot of these fights come back to political issues. Have you enjoyed that part of the job?

GP: I’ve always been politically active… Just take a look at what’s happened to our east, whether it’s Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky… We’d be long gone if it wasn’t for Gov. Dayton. Without his veto pen, we’d be in the same boat.

UA: What are Steelworkers seeing in those right-to-work states?

GP: Obviously, it’s going to affect our membership. When employers can use a divide-and-conquer strategy, it’s going to leak into the strength of our collective agreements. That’s basically the strategy behind right to work.

UA: What’s next for you?

GP: A lot of travel with my wife. Hunting, fishing, golfing. And grandkids.

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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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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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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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With Fast Track poised to pass Senate, Franken keeps up fight for better trade policy

May 20, 2015 by
Sen. Al Franken cracks up the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition leadership team while accepting his award. From L to R: coalition chair Kera Peterson, Franken, director Josh Wise and treasurer Russ Hess.

Sen. Al Franken accepted the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition’s leadership award in 2013.

A procedural vote last week greased the wheels for Fast Track in the U.S. Senate, but Sen. Al Franken is keeping up the fight for a trade bill that does the least harm to U.S. workers.

Yesterday Franken offered two amendments to the Fast Track bill. One would require tougher labor and environmental standards from foreign partners; the other would create more job-training opportunities for U.S. workers.

“As the debate continues to heat up this week in the Senate, I’m going to be pressing to make this trade package better for Minnesota,” Franken said.

Franken has been outspoken in his opposition to Fast Track, which would limit Congress’ influence over new trade agreements by forcing members to take up-or-down votes without offering amendments.

The DFL senator also has been skeptical of President Obama’s top trade priority, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. A sweeping, NAFTA-style free-trade agreement with 11 other countries, TPP has been negotiated in secret by trade ambassadors, with input only from “cleared advisers” who mostly represent multinational corporations.

But with Fast Track likely to pass the Senate as early as Thursday, Franken and other fair-trade Democrats are scrambling to make a bad bill better, introducing more than 150 amendments.

tpp-fast-track-1“When trade is done right, it can be beneficial, and it can help us remain competitive in an increasingly global economy,” Franken said. “But unfortunately, the trade package currently being debated in the Senate falls short of ensuring that trade agreements will genuinely benefit Minnesota workers, our communities and our businesses.”

Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) co-sponsored Franken’s amendment to require stiffer labor and environmental standards from U.S. trade partners during trade negotiations.

Franken’s other amendment is based on a bill he previously introduced, the Community College to Career Fund Act. It would foster partnerships between community and technical colleges and businesses to train students interested in filling high-demand, open jobs in Minnesota and across the country. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) is a co-sponsor.

“While I don’t believe that ‘fast track authority’ should be approved, I want to make sure that our trade negotiations aren’t toothless,” Franken said. “When it comes to ensuring strong labor and environmental standards worldwide, we need to make sure that our trade partners are playing by the rules. And I also want to protect our workers here at home by giving them the tools they need to get training for jobs in industries like manufacturing, healthcare, IT and energy.”

Franken’s advocacy on behalf of better trade policy earned him the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition’s Fair Trade Leadership award in 2013. In addition to calling for greater transparency in TPP negotiations, Franken took the lead on efforts to stop South Korea from unfairly dumping steel into the U.S. market and harming Iron Range producers.

Both Franken and Sen. Amy Klobuchar voted last week to oppose Fast Track.

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St. Paul City Council takes stance against ‘poor trade policies,’ including fast track

April 24, 2015 by

fb_fasttrack_call2The 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 negotiated undergoes a transformation to make the process open, fair and inclusive,” the resolution says.

Click here to read the full text.

Congress is considering a new fast track bill that, like previous versions, would force members to approve or reject – but not amend – trade agreements negotiated by the president’s trade ambassadors, like the 1,000-page Trans-Pacific Partnership.

By passing the resolution, members of the council joined union members, environmentalists, faith leaders and others across the country speaking out against fast track – and calling on their members of Congress to vote down the bill.

Locally, those lobbying efforts have focused on Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Rep. Betty McCollum, whose district includes the St. Paul, is on record opposing fast track.

Bobby Kasper, president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, said council members showed their commitment to democracy, transparency and fairness for working people by passing the resolution.

“Fast track paves the road for trade agreements that do more than set tariffs and trade,” Kasper said. “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.

Council Member Chris Tolbert

Council Member Chris Tolbert

“We’re fortunate to have City Council members in St. Paul who share our opposition to fast track, and we’re hopeful other elected officials at the local level will follow their lead.”

Kasper credited Council Member Chris Tolbert for bringing the resolution before the council.

“I am grateful for the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation’s leadership in the fight against fast track, and my colleagues and I were proud to be able to join labor by unanimously supporting opposition to this legislation,” Tolbert said. “This legislation will hurt working families across the country by outsourcing more jobs overseas – good paying jobs that are important for keeping a strong middle class in St. Paul and across the country.”

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Not So Fast: Unions ramp up pressure on Congress to stop fast track

April 21, 2015 by
Fair trade activists handed out fliers outside Target Field Saturday.

Fair trade activists handed out fliers outside Target Field Saturday.

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 versions, they warn, it would put too much power in the hands of the president, his trade ambassadors and their corporate “advisors.”

“We have realized it’s almost exactly the same,” Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition Director Kaela Berg said. “There’s really nothing new.”

Introduced last week as the “Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015,” fast track is an essential step in the Obama administration’s push to enter the U.S. into new NAFTA-style free trade agreements like the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership.

In granting the president fast track authority, Congress relinquishes its constitutional authority to review and amend trade pacts, forcing members into an up-or-down vote on complex agreements like the TPP, which has 29 chapters and 1,000 pages of provisions. It’s a perilous method for setting trade policy, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said, especially given the secrecy surrounding TPP negotiations.

“Trade deals have wide-ranging impacts and shouldn’t be negotiated behind closed doors and then rubber-stamped,” Trumka said. “The current Trans-Pacific Partnership deal under discussion would cover 40 percent of the world’s GDP. A deal this big should be debated in a full and open manner like every other piece of legislation.”

[Click here to urge your representatives in Congress to oppose fast track for the TPP.]

Mindful that no trade deal – regardless of how devastating it was for U.S. jobs, family farmers or the environment – has ever been turned down by Congress under fast track rules, labor is intensifying its efforts to defeat the measure and stave off the TPP.

In March the AFL-CIO announced it would freeze all contributions to federal lawmakers’ Political Action Committees and, instead, direct those resources to the battle over trade policy. Since then, union members and fair-trade activists across the country have dialed up the pressure on undecided members of Congress with rallies, phone banks and other outreach initiatives.

web.FastTrack-kieranLocally, the campaign has focused on Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a labor-endorsed DFLer who has not yet publicly opposed the new fast track bill, according to Berg. Other members of the DFL delegation, including Sen. Al Franken, are believed to be on board, she added.

“We’ve been in Sen. Klobuchar’s office,” Berg said. “We’ve delivered oversized postcards with signatures from her constituents asking her to oppose fast track. We’ve sent letters to her Washington office.

“She knows where we stand. We just really want to hold her accountable.”

The Fair Trade Coalition, founded by labor, family-farm, faith and non-profit groups that opposed NAFTA nearly 25 years ago, took to the streets Saturday afternoon in Minneapolis. Volunteers handed out fliers to fans making their way into the Twins game, asking for calls to Klobuchar’s office.

Julie Fergus, one of about 20 volunteers, said she opposes fast track because previous free trade agreements have “given more power to the big businesses and taken power away from regular people here and in other countries.”

“I think a lot of people have no idea what fast track is, and maybe they don’t really want to know,” Fergus added. “People don’t realize some of the stuff they’re putting in these agreements, but if we can slow it down, people might realize how dangerous some of this is.”

Mike Zagaros, president of Minneapolis-based Branch 9 of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said the bottom line is fast track “is obviously not for us.”

“Something as big as the TPP should be talked about in front of God and everybody,” he said. “Fast track prevents that.”

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AFL-CIO halts PAC contributions, gears up for battle to stop fast track

March 11, 2015 by

AFLCIOUpping the ante in its campaign to stop trade agreements that give corporations more power over the global economy, the AFL-CIO announced today it would freeze all contributions to federal lawmakers’ Political Action Committees and focus, instead, on a ground battle against fast track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The nation’s largest labor federation announced the freeze, which also applies to its affiliate unions, in a news release today:

The AFL-CIO … and its affiliated unions are freezing all Political Action Committee (PAC) contributions to federal candidates until further notice in order to conserve resources for the historic legislative battle around fast track (trade promotion authority) and the debate over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The Council established the defeat of Fast Track as a top federation priority and passed a statement outlining its commitment to fight any trade agreement that fails to prioritize the needs of working families and advance shared prosperity in the global economy.

The AFL-CIO and its affiliates spent $617,771 on PAC contributions in the 2014 election cycle, according to OpenSecrets.org, the Center for Responsive Politics’ website. Most of the federation’s contributions went to Democrats.

The battle over fast track, which would force members to take an up-or-down vote on 1trade agreements without offering amendments, puts the AFL-CIO in the unusual position of opposing the Obama administration.

Looking for common ground with Republicans who took over Congress this year, the White House has moved fast track and the TPP to the top of its agenda. The AFL-CIO’s PAC announcement puts Democratic members of Congress on notice that labor is unwilling to compromise when it comes to supporting a new vision for trade.

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