[CTC] AFL-CIO President Calls for New American Foreign Policy Rooted in the Needs of Working People

[Arthur Stamoulis]

https://aflcio.org/press/releases/afl-cio-president-calls-new-american-foreign-policy-rooted-needs-working-people

AFL-CIO President Calls for New American Foreign Policy Rooted in the Needs
of Working People

*(Washington, D.C.)*—AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler delivered a keynote
address at the Foreign Policy for America Leadership Summit
<https://www.fp4america.org/leadership-summit/> today, where she called for
a new approach that leaves behind “the neoliberal policies we have largely
tried for the past three decades [that] have not worked” and advances “a
new vision that is rooted in the needs of working people.”

In the speech, Shuler offered four pillars for a new American foreign
policy: economic opportunity for all, a trade model that puts working
people first, giving workers a voice when it comes to the technologies that
will shape the future, and a recognition that no conflict has ever
benefitted working people. She emphasized that “unions have always seen
tariffs as one of the tools in our trade policy tool box,” and called on
the conference to “not see trade as a binary of free trade versus
protectionism,” but rather ask to what and whom “is trade in service?”

Shuler closed by reminding attendees that labor unions “are the champions
of democracy.” “Build a mass movement in this moment, pass policies that
empower us, and we will prove it again,” she said.

*Remarks by President Shuler as Delivered:*

Good morning, everyone. Thank you Kristina for that introduction.

It’s a great honor to be here, and be part of this important conversation
alongside Senator Kim and Representative Ansari. I want to thank Andrew
[Albertson, Executive Director], and the Foreign Policy For America team
for your work, and I’m very much looking forward to my conversation with
Doug [Palmer, Politico].

I’m here today, first and foremost, representing 15 million working people
in our Federation. Workers who have jobs in every sector of our economy:
teachers and nurses; autoworkers and engineers; construction and the
trades.

Workers who are deeply affected, every day, by the foreign policy of this
country — whether that is the global conflicts that involve our veterans,
who come home and rejoin the workforce forever changed … or our trade
policy, which as we’ve seen the past few weeks, affects the cost of living
for every family in this country.

I’m here to talk about those policies and their impact. But I’m also here
because I believe there is something *bigger* the labor movement can offer
in this moment.

I think I speak for everyone in this room when I say: I am deeply concerned
for our democracy, and the future of democracy across the globe.

That word, democracy, means rule by the people. That idea is at the heart
of every union that has ever existed. It means every worker has a voice
when it comes to their future; has a voice when it comes to their basic
rights and dignity. And has a belief that things can get better, because
they have that voice.

Right now, workers have lost that belief.

Much of the post-war system of multilateralism has been hollowed out.
Deregulation and bad trade deals have consolidated power, and allowed
global corporations to run amok. Mainstream political parties have failed
to deliver meaningful change.

What’s left is vast swaths of people who are disillusioned and
disenfranchised — and have unsurprisingly turned to far-right populists and
authoritarians to deliver any kind of change in their lives.

The autocrats have done what autocrats do best: Divide us along lines of
culture, status, race, and gender.

Isolate us by weakening our alliances, gutting our foreign assistance, and
removing us from the global dialogue — as we saw again this past week, when
this Administration banned U.S. agencies from working on the G-20 in South
Africa.

We are experiencing the largest rupture to the global economic and
geopolitical order since World War 2. And we have two choices in front of
us.

This can be the beginning of a very dark path — of authoritarians seizing
more and more power of inequality continuing to grow to all-time highs of
climate disaster, A.I. overreach, and isolationism. Or this can be the
moment when we create a new vision. A new vision that is honest about the
fact that the neoliberal policies we have largely tried for the past three
decades have not worked. A new vision that is rooted in the needs of
working people.

That kind of vision cannot be achieved behind closed doors.

It needs to come from a mass movement. It needs to come because people — at
home and abroad — are inspired to believe in democracy again, believe that
it is the system to deliver them more opportunity, more dignity, and a
better life.

What I want to propose to you today is four pillars for that vision. Four
pillars that, if we follow them can not only help us emerge from this
moment, but build a global economy that works for every person on this
planet.

The first pillar is economic opportunity for all.

For decades, governments have allowed the richest individuals and
corporations to avoid paying their fair share. It is time for tax policies
that are progressive, not regressive. It is time for the fair taxation of
wealth and capital, the closure of corporate tax loopholes, and a binding
United Nations Framework Convention on Tax to ensure multinational
corporations pay taxes where they earn their profits.

We must also address the power imbalances that exist due to race, gender,
immigration status — recognizing that too many have been held back from the
opportunity to build and accumulate wealth.

And core to all of this  is ensuring every worker in the world has the
basic right to organize — to form a union, and fight for better wages,
better benefits and health care, and a chance to work and retire with
dignity.

The second pillar is a trade model that puts working people first.

Unions have always seen tariffs as one of the tools in our trade policy
tool box. We should not see trade as a binary of free trade versus
protectionism, but rather we should ask: What is trade in service to? To
whom is trade in service?

We also know that a tariff alone can not grow jobs long-term without
investments. Currently, this administration has not said anything about
making investments in critical industries like steel and auto. We are
actually hearing about a stalling of, or even elimination, of the tax
incentives and grants that were supported through the Inflation Reduction
Act. Creating these tariffs without making the right investments and
choices here at home is like putting the car in neutral, then stepping on
the gas.

It is time to think boldly about the trade model we do want to see.

I hear far too many people saying tariffs are just a bad idea and we should
return to the free trade models of before. I would say in response: Look at
what is happening through a political economy lens. Those old free trade
models did not address the needs of workers and their communities, and they
definitely did not address the needs of our planet.

Former Ambassador Tai helped our country begin to build a new framework for
trade policy.  She challenged the D.C. binary of free versus fair trade,
and positioned us to look at trade in service of the most people and our
planet.

These questions she and others began to ask are the ones we must continue
to ask right now: How do these policies improve the lives of workers?
Advance the clean energy transition and protect our environment?

The approach included an analysis of the distributional impacts of policies
on communities impacted by trade, and ensured unions were at the table
actively helping to shape the vision with other stakeholders. This was the
right start and we needed more time to advance this new framework.

The third pillar is giving workers a voice when it comes to the
technologies that will shape the future.

A few years ago, we at the AFL-CIO created a Tech Institute to be able to
ground the needs of workers into shaping and implementing technology.

Workers have always been adapting to technology but they need to be a part
of it and we need to advocate for safeguards that put people at the center
of the debate around technology and in particular AI. At the global level,
we were seeing movement to create some kinds of regulations around the use
of AI and address data privacy concerns. But the current push for
deregulation could set us back with these kinds of safeguards.

We need to shape technology that augments human capacity rather than just
automate. Jobs that are automated and replaced means that we must also
create incentives for companies to reskill or upskill their workforces.

And we need labor market policies that support and actually incentivizes
the right to form a union which enables unions to work with employers to
negotiate how technology is implemented in the workplace and it also
creates space to envision transformed workplaces that have new technology.
Unions negotiate to ensure a more equitable distribution of the benefits of
increased productivity.

The fourth and final pillar  is a recognition that no conflict, in the
history of the world, has ever benefitted working people.

That means an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as we have called for, as we
continue to work with the Palestinian labor movement — along with a release
of the hostages and immediate humanitarian aid.

It means a long and lasting peace in the Ukraine, which working people
deserve to have a stake in shaping — as we have helped support through our
work with our brothers and sisters in the Ukrainian labor movement.

And as the world edges towards more global conflict it requires all of us
remembering: No conflict is ever worth the extreme cost paid by working
people and working families.

None of these four pillars requires a revolutionary act. But they do
require us to think differently than we have in the past; to not follow the
same old failed policies, and instead pursue new ones that empower workers.

Throughout history, in diverse contexts ranging from apartheid South Africa
to Brazil’s military rule, and Myanmar’s coup, unions have fought
authoritarians and changed the world.

We are the champions of democracy.

Build a mass movement in this moment, pass policies that empower us, and we
will prove it again. Thank you.
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