[CTC] Labor leader urges presidential candidates to oppose trade deals

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Two articles below…

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/28/us-usa-election-labor-idUSKBN0NJ24D20150428 <http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/28/us-usa-election-labor-idUSKBN0NJ24D20150428>
 
Labor leader urges presidential candidates to oppose trade deals
 
Reuters
By Amanda Becker
April 28, 2015
 
(Reuters) - The leader of the largest federation of U.S. labor unions has called on Hillary Clinton and other presidential hopefuls to oppose an Obama administration trade pact.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on Tuesday delivered his first address about the U.S. presidential election in November 2016, laying out criteria the federation's 56 member unions will use to assess candidates.

Trumka said a top priority was blocking "fast track" trade legislation under consideration by the Congress, along with the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership pact being finalized by the White House.

"The TPP is the latest example of a long-term approach to trade that ... was designed to drive wages down, create special rights for corporations and export jobs," Trumka said, citing as another example a North America pact ratified under former President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

"The labor movement opposes Fast Track, and we expect those who seek to lead our nation forward to oppose Fast Track as well," Trumka said. "There is no middle ground."

Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state, U.S. senator, first lady and the only Democrat who is formally campaigning for president, is considered the strong front runner for the party's nomination.

Organized labor is an important force in the Democratic Party's base. But Trumka made clear on Tuesday that the federation would not mobilize its 12.5 million workers for candidates who do not commit to policies that will boost wages and address income inequality, including opposing the trade pacts.

"Candidates can't hedge their bets any longer and expect workers to rush to the polls in excitement, to run out and door knock, and phone bank, and leaflet, only to have their candidate of choice turn their back toward the policies that will correct what is wrong with America," Trumka said.

President Barack Obama, along with business, some Democrats and many congressional Republicans, says the trade pact will ease the export of U.S. goods, create jobs and contains enforceable provisions related to labor and environmental standards.

Clinton has yet to outline her policy positions, including whether and how she will distance herself from her husband's administration and Obama on key economic issues such as trade.

"Any trade deal has to produce jobs and raise wages and increase prosperity and protect our security," Clinton said when asked about the pending deals at New Hampshire campaign stop last week.




http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/04/28/richard-trumka-a-f-l-c-i-o-chief-warns-candidates-on-inequality/ <http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/04/28/richard-trumka-a-f-l-c-i-o-chief-warns-candidates-on-inequality/>
 
 
Richard Trumka, A.F.L.-C.I.O. Chief, Warns Candidates on Inequality
 
The New York Times
By Jonathan Martin
April 28, 2015
 
Richard Trumka, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., vowed Tuesday that organized labor would no longer accept “cautious half-measures” from presidential candidates about how to address economic fairness, an implicit but unmistakable attempt to nudge Hillary Rodham Clinton toward embracing a liberal agenda during her presidential run.

Without mentioning Mrs. Clinton by name, Mr. Trumka used pointed language to blame the business-friendly approach of both parties for soaring income inequality and stagnant wages.

“Workers have swallowed the politics of hedged bets for almost two generations,” Mr. Trumka said in a speech at the labor federation’s headquarters  <http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Political-Action-Legislation/Raising-Wages-Is-Measuring-Stick-for-Presidential-Candidate-Support-Trumka-Declares>in Washington. “We’ve waited for the scraps that remain after the pollsters shape the politics.”

His comments come as unions and other groups on the left are moving more aggressively to demand that employers and politicians act boldly to improve the prospects of working-class Americans. The push from the left has created tensions within the Democratic Party, most notably on trade.

Labor is aggressively lobbying to block the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade pact between the United States and a dozen Pacific Rim nations that unions say would result in job losses and lower wages. President Obama and his top advisers have scrambled to rebut such claims, and Mr. Obama has even tangled publicly with high-profile opponents of the agreement, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts. A group of unions, including the federation itself, have suspended contributions to members of Congress until after a vote on the pact.

Mrs. Clinton supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership as Mr. Obama’s secretary of state, but has sidestepped the issue since beginning her presidential campaign.

“Any trade deal has to produce jobs and raise wages and increase prosperity and protect our security,” she said last week in New Hampshire.

Mr. Trumka made clear that he wanted Mrs. Clinton, and all the White House hopefuls, to unambiguously state their opposition both to the trade pact and any “fast track” measure giving presidents the authority to negotiate trade agreements that Congress cannot amend.

“The labor movement opposes fast track,” the union leader said. “And we expect those who seek to lead our nation forward to oppose fast track, as well. There’s no middle ground, and the time for deliberations is drawing to a close.”

Asked after his speech specifically about Mrs. Clinton’s position on the trade agreement, Mr. Trumka said: “No candidate can be silent on any issue that’s important to the people. She’ll have to respond like every other candidate.”

With such pointed but carefully delivered language — referring to the entire presidential field rather than singling out Mrs. Clinton — Mr. Trumka is walking a line between pressuring the likely Democratic standard-bearer on behalf of his members without angering her and her top advisers and risking losing influence should she become president. Unions are widely expected to ultimately rally behind Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, just as many of them did during her 2008 bid.

Mr. Trumka, however, did want to send a message to Mrs. Clinton about labor’s frustration with some of the centrist economic policies pursued by recent Republican presidents as well as Mr. Obama and President Bill Clinton.

“Since the 1980s, the growing political power of the wealthiest among us has rewritten our labor laws, our trade laws, our tax laws, our monetary policy, our fiscal policy, our financial regulations, all to push wages down and to increase corporate profits, to put speculation over private investment and tax cuts over public investment,” he said.

Mr. Trumka announced that the A.F.L.-C.I.O. would create what he billed as “raising wages summits” in the first four presidential nominating states. He said that the first gathering would take place next month in Iowa and would aim to set a policy “standard by which presidential aspirations will be judged.”

“No candidate can be all things to all people and still meet this standard,” he added. “Standing with working people once in a while won’t work.”

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