[CTC] Statements on Fast Track vote (USW, Teamsters, CWA, FOE, FWW, PC)

Tue Jun 23 10:56:34 PDT 2015

USW Statement on U.S. Senate Vote

A Call for Fair Trade by Workers Echoes Globally 

PITTSBURGH (Jun. 23) – Leo W. Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers (USW) issued the following statement today after the U.S. Senate procedural vote to invoke cloture, paving the way for fast track negotiating authority to be passed and sent to President Obama’s desk.

 “Today the Senate voted to invoke cloture that set up the passage of fast track trade negotiating authority.   This vote applies grease to the wheels for the Administration to rush to complete negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement.

“At the beginning of this process, few of the elite, free trade orthodoxy, expected the President’s request for fast track to face the kind of backlash from voters and progressive politicians it has encountered.   They assumed that it would pass with little problem.  

“Workers calling for fair trade are echoed across the globe.   Free trade ideology has met the reality of today’s trade system that has left too many behind as corporations and the wealthy have harvested the profits.   We need a new approach to trade.

“Our trade negotiators and those from other nations are now on notice that the TPP needs to promote the interests of working families rather than continuing to undermine them.   This fight for fair trade is far from over.   Progressive forces have new energy from this fight.   Our voices will not be muted.

“We appreciate those who voted on behalf of working people calling for a new approach.   Their support will not be forgotten.   Those who voted to continue the status quo approach will have to live with the results.   By ignoring the facts and history, the resulting shuttered factories, devastated communities and Americans who lose their jobs to trade will be their legacy. 

“There’s a reason that the Administration has cloaked the draft trade agreement in such secrecy:   It only continues today’s failed approach.   Hopefully, they’ve finally heard the voices of working people and will change the approach.   When they finally allow the public to see the agreement, Americans will be able to see what they’ve done and whether they will, for the first time, be able to benefit from a trade deal.

“Republicans promised that they would consider, and pass, Trade Adjustment Assistance as well as needed reforms to our trade laws.   Hopefully, they will keep their word and honor their promises.”

The USW represents 850,000 workers in North America employed among industries that include metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining, plus the service and public sectors. For more information: http://www.usw.org <http://www.usw.org/>/.

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CWA Statement on Senate Cloture Vote on Fast Track Trade Authority

Washington, D.C. –Today, a majority of Republicans and 13 Democratic senators showed beyond doubt that they’re on the side of the 1 percent, not ordinary Americans, not working families and not U.S. communities.

These Senators caved to corporate interests that want access to poverty wages in Vietnam and the ability to challenge any U.S. laws they believe will get in the way of “future expected profits.” No surprise, a deal that corporations want so badly is fast tracked, because they spent millions of dollars to make it happen. But issues that affect ordinary Americans, like investment in our country’s roads and transportation, an increase in the minimum wage or some real attention to climate change, just get shoved aside.

These Senators have misjudged the voice and will of the American people. A broad coalition of millions of Americans has been telling their senators and representatives for many months that Fast Track is a betrayal of U.S. workers, communities and law.  

As this deal moves forward, we will continue to remind President Obama of his promise that the Trans-Pacific Partnership is different and will benefit working families and improve environmental standards. In fact, the Obama administration can start today to show how different this trade policy is by demanding justice for the murder of a union leader in Honduras just last week. That alone will be a big change from the US Trade Representative’s contention that the murder of union activists in Colombia is not an unfair trade practice.  

"Our coalition of millions of Americans, from labor to environmentalists, community organizations, immigrants’ rights, and faith based groups will continue to fight for 21st century trade where citizen rights, not just corporate rights, count.  Last week Honduran trade union leader Hector Motino was murdered as he drove home from work.  I had met Hector in Honduras and heard about the death threats he faced and the 200 human rights activists who were murdered in Honduras since the labor movement filed a complaint under the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).  We will hold our government and the US Trade Representative responsible for real enforcement of the human rights provisions of these agreements both in the US and with our so-called partners.  We will demand real change, not just text that cannot be enforced," said former CWA president Larry Cohen who continues to help lead the fair trade coalition.

CWA President Chris Shelton said, “This vote won’t stop us. CWA members, union members and activists from nearly every progressive group will continue to join together and fight, to build independent political power for working people. We will hold members of Congress accountable for this vote.  We’ll stand with those members of Congress who supported our communities, and for those who opposed the broadest coalition of Americans ever, we will find and support candidates who will stand with working families. That’s how we’ll take on the corporate Democrats who oppose a working family agenda.”

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Despite Fast Track Vote, Americans Know Trade Deals Fail Miserably, Will Oppose Trans-Pacific Partnership

Statement of Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen

Following elaborate legislative contortions and gimmicks designed to hand multinational corporations their top priority, today the U.S. Senate paved the way for Fast Track legislation that aims to advance the corporate wish list known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), as well other trade deals.

Those contortions were necessary because the American people overwhelmingly oppose these deals, notwithstanding an endless barrage of propaganda.

They oppose these deals because they know from personal experience that the NAFTA model fails miserably.

They know that these deals will mean more export of jobs, more downward pressure on wages. They know that these deals will undermine our ability to maintain and adopt strong environmental and consumer protections. They know that these deals are designed to help giant corporations, and not communities.

Today’s action means that Congress will tie its hands to prevent it from exerting positive influence over negotiations of the TPP. It means that the final TPP agreement will very likely include provisions empowering foreign corporations to sue our own government for policies that they claim impinge on their expected future profits. It means that the final TPP will very likely include provisions that will extend Big Pharma monopolies, raising prices for consumers and health systems – and, even in the United States, and especially in the poorer TPP countries, denying people access to needed medical treatment. It means that the final TPP will very likely include provisions undermining our food safety.

What it doesn’t mean is that Congress must pass such a TPP. When the inexcusable and anti-democratic veil of secrecy surrounding the TPP is finally lifted, and the American people see what is actually in the agreement, they are going to force their representatives in Washington to vote that deal down. Members who fail to do so can expect their constituents to hold them accountable.

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Senate ignores mass opposition to Fast Track

Posted Jun. 23, 2015 / Posted by: Kate Colwell

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today the Senate voted 60 to 37 to jump a procedural hurdle on the path that will send Fast Track trade promotion legislation to President Obama for his signature. Senators voted for the bill that will facilitate the later approval of the Trans Pacific Partnership, TTIP and other environmentally destructive trade deals now under negotiation.

Fast Track is widely opposed by the environmental community and broad swaths of civil society, including labor, civil rights, family farm, food safety, Internet freedom, senior citizen, public health and consumer advocates.

President of Friends of the Earth Erich Pica had this to say about today’s vote:  

Congressional approval of Fast Track trade promotion authority is a betrayal of the environment, working families and the public interest. The Senate vote today illustrates the raw power of wealthy campaign contributors, Wall Street financiers, Big Oil and other corporate polluters to put the will of corporations in front of people and the environment. President Obama and supporters of this trade deal are wrong on Fast Track and have alienated Americans who value good jobs and a clean environment.

Resources:
Letter <http://action.sierraclub.org/site/DocServer/Fast_Track_Enviro_Letter_to_114th_Congress.pdf?docID=17141> from 44 environmental groups opposing Fast Track
Letter  <http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/FastTrackOppositionLtr_042715.pdf>from more than 2,000 civil society groups opposing Fast Track

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Expert contact: Bill Waren, (202) 222-0746, wwaren at foe.org <mailto:wwaren at foe.org>
Communications contact: Kate Colwell, (202) 222-0744, kcolwell at foe.org <mailto:kcolwell at foe.org>
- See more at: http://www.foe.org/news/news-releases/2015-06-senate-ignores-mass-opposition-to-fast-track#sthash.qmdG345m.dpuf <http://www.foe.org/news/news-releases/2015-06-senate-ignores-mass-opposition-to-fast-track#sthash.qmdG345m.dpuf>

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/pressreleases/free-trade-senate-democrats-provide-narrow-margin-to-pass-fast-track/

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Contact: Kate Fried, Food & Water Watch, (202) 683-4905, kfried at fwwatch.org<mailto:kfried at fwwatch.org>

Free-Trade Senate Democrats Provide Narrow Margin to Pass Fast Track
Statement of Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter

Washington, D.C. ? ?Today, the Senate narrowly approved a procedural motion to pass a degraded version of the Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority that passed last month. A smaller handful of Democrats joined with Senate Republicans to pass Fast Track over the will of the American people who have been clamoring to halt the rush to rubber stamp trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

?Last month, the Senate passed a different version of Fast Track, but House Republicans eviscerated the delicate Senate policy balances, making the version the Senate passed today considerably worse. Today?s legislation does not include the worker-retraining program that many said was essential to securing their vote, but House Republicans are unlikely to ensure this program survives to the President?s desk. Today?s bill also weakened the Senate?s earlier provisions addressing human trafficking and currency manipulation and includes new House language that prohibits trade deals from ever addressing climate change or immigration issues.

?Fast Track will accelerate Congressional consideration of the as-yet-unseen Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact that will undermine key consumer, public health and environmental protections, and other trade deals that follow. These trade deals could undermine America?s food safety standards and commonsense food labeling measures, bringing a rising tide of unsafe imported food to our grocery stores and restaurants.

?The senators who provided the margin of Fast Track victory will face angry voters in their next elections. Constituents will hold them accountable for putting the interests of transnational corporations ahead of the public.?

Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainable. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping shared resources under public control.

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