[CTC] Trumka || Strive for a better trade deal

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Two op-eds from AFL-CIO President Trumka and others below…


https://www.timesonline.com/news/20190616/nafta-that-works-for-workers
A NAFTA that works for workers


By Richard Trumka and Rick Bloomingdale, For The Times
Posted Jun 16, 2019 at 12:15 AM
The North American Free Trade Agreement has been a disaster for working Pennsylvanians. But, the way it came about was no accident.

Those in power decided that greed, not justice or fairness, would be the rule of our economy. Corporations were handed free rein to suppress the rights of workers in Mexico, slash wages across North America and destroy livelihoods here at home — anything to fatten their already burgeoning profit margins.

For the past 25 years, we have witnessed the capacity of shameless politicians and greedy executives to wreak havoc on working people. We have watched families reel from the closing of a plant at the heart of their community. We have seen our parents and grandparents scramble to survive as their pensions are sacrificed to reassure shareholders. Day after day, the fruits of our labor have has been sold out to enrich those with the most.

President Donald Trump won Pennsylvania in large part by calling out this rigged system. But, his proposed new NAFTA doesn’t live up to the massive structural problems facing our country.

Something needs to change, but working people can’t afford to settle for rebrands or soft-footed reform. We won’t accept tweaks around the edges. NAFTA needs to be ripped out by the roots and replaced with something dramatically different.

A truly pro-worker trade deal will do more than minimize collateral damage. It will prioritize the needs of working people over the demands of a few CEOs. And, it will put us in a stronger position for the future by using the United States’ leverage to strengthen our rights at work, raise wages and create good jobs.

As it stands, the president’s proposal would waste a massive opportunity to usher in a new era of American trade policy. It leaves in place some of the worst parts of NAFTA while handing pharmaceutical companies even more power to set exorbitant drug prices. Working people are demanding better.

First, the administration needs to dramatically strengthen the deal’s enforcement provisions. In the current draft, when corporations break the rules, they will have the power to block any investigation into their actions. Negotiators had gotten rid of this loophole in recent trade agreements, so to turn back now is an absurd concession and a total non-starter for the labor movement. It doesn’t matter what the proposed new NAFTA offers in theory; without a way to hold multinational corporations accountable, this deal isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

Second, the administration needs to use this opportunity to free patients from the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs. The current proposal does precisely the opposite, granting Big Pharma a continent-wide, decade-long monopoly that would prove disastrous for working people in all three countries.


Third, Mexican workers must be guaranteed the right to organize, negotiate higher wages and win acceptable working conditions. While the Mexican government has taken steps in the right direction, this proposal has no way of ensuring that they continue following through on their promises. This deal needs to mandate transparent reporting and strong, guaranteed consequences for violations. So far, the new NAFTA has no mechanism for ensuring any meaningful change. To move forward without effective enforcement and monitoring tools would sacrifice any leverage we have to save jobs in Pennsylvania and strengthen workers’ rights on both sides of the border.

These are the most egregious issues, but there is a range of other problems with the current proposal that also need to be addressed, from allowing corporations to hide the origins of our food to leaving high-wage jobs vulnerable to continued outsourcing.

Simply put, we won’t allow the next generation to suffer the same injustices of the past quarter-century. If the administration insists on rushing its flawed agreement without these common-sense improvements, our movement will mobilize an unrivaled, nationwide organizing network to ensure that it never sees the light of day. But if President Trump can deliver on these changes and produce a truly pro-worker deal, we are ready and eager to win its passage in Congress.

Either way, this process will be driven first and foremost by the voices of working people. That’s why we’re hosting a workers’ town hall Monday in Pittsburgh, where we will hear from the Pennsylvanians who have suffered through NAFTA’s devastation. These workers are demanding something better, and they’re prepared to fight for it.

We suggest the White House listen to what they have to say.

Richard Trumka is president of the AFL-CIO. Rick Bloomingdale is president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO.


https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2019/06/12/opinion-strive-better-trade-deal/1414175001/
Opinion: Strive for a better trade deal
Richard Trumka and Ron Bieber
The North American Free Trade Agreement has been nothing short of a disaster for working people. For a quarter-century, Michiganians have watched as corporations shuttered plants, raided pensions and steadily eroded communities that had come to embody the promise of the American Dream.

NAFTA is a disaster. But it was no accident. Politicians and corporate executives saw trade as a way to further tilt the economy in their favor. They sold out jobs and livelihoods here at home and sacrificed workers' rights abroad. Nothing was off limits so long as they could sniff out fatter profit margins.

President Trump was right to recognize that something needs to change. Working people in Michigan responded to that message, but the president’s proposal falls far short of what he promised.

NAFTA can't be tinkered with around the edges — it needs to be ripped out by the roots and replaced with something dramatically different. The current proposal, which U.S. Rep. Andy Levin of Bloomfield has rightly referred to as “NAFTA 1.5,” is simply not good enough.

Michigan families aren’t interested in trade policies that enrich corporations first, then seek to mitigate the devastating economic fallout second. A truly pro-worker trade agreement won’t prioritize the demands of CEOs and multinational conglomerates. Instead, it will use the United States' leverage to strengthen workers' rights across borders, while raising wages and creating good jobs here.

The administration’s proposed new NAFTA is a huge missed opportunity, leaving some of the original agreement’s worst pieces in place and even granting new monopoly rights to Big Pharma at a time when the prices of prescription drugs are going through the roof. It’s not too late to move aggressively toward a new era in American trade policy, but it’s going to require significant improvements to this proposal.


First, the new NAFTA needs dramatically stronger enforcement tools to ensure that the rules we agree to in theory are actually followed. As it stands, the administration’s deal would let a corporation shut down investigations into its own trade violations, a loophole that had been rightly abandoned in recent trade agreements. To turn back now makes absolutely no sense. Without a way to hold everyone accountable, this deal isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

Second, the administration needs to loosen Big Pharma’s death grip on prescription drug prices. The current deal would give pharmaceutical corporations the power to charge whatever they like, without competition, across North America for at least a decade. That’s not trade. It’s greed.

Third, Mexican workers must be guaranteed the right to organize, negotiate higher wages and win acceptable working conditions. While the Mexican government has taken steps in the right direction, this proposal has no way of ensuring that they continue following through on their promises. This deal needs to mandate transparent reporting and strong, guaranteed consequences for violations. The new NAFTA has no mechanism for ensuring any meaningful change. To move forward without the necessary enforcement tools would sacrifice any leverage we have to save jobs in Michigan and strengthen workers’ rights on both sides of the border.

These are the most egregious issues, but there is a range of other problems with the current proposal that also need to be addressed, from allowing corporations to hide the origins of our food to leaving high-wage jobs vulnerable to continued outsourcing.

If the Trump administration returns to the negotiating table and secures a truly fair deal, our movement will mobilize nationwide to win its passage in Congress.

But, if the president insists on ramming through the current proposal, as the recent decision to formally start the approval process indicates, we will use our unmatched grassroots power to ensure that it never sees the light of day.

Despite the White House’s hurry, an effort of this magnitude can’t be rushed or sloppily thrown together. This is a conversation that will continue in the coming months, led first and foremost by the voices of working people. That’s why we are looking forward to hosting a workers’ town hall in Detroit on June 19, where we will be listening to the stories, questions and demands of working Michiganians who have suffered under NAFTA for far too long.

If the president and his team hope to pass any type of North American trade deal, we suggest they tune in as well.

Richard Trumka is president of the AFL-CIO. Ron Bieber is president of the Michigan AFL-CIO.
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