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Legislators Getting the Message: Trade Policies Must Change |
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Voters made it clear last November they wanted changes in U.S. trade policies that for too long have encouraged employers to ship jobs overseas. Now, our elected officials are taking notice and taking action both in Congress and in state legislatures across the country.
Just last week, Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, said the committee will soon propose “a complete revision” of the trade adjustment assistance program, which compensates manufacturing workers whose jobs are displaced by foreign trade.
The overhaul legislation still is being completed, but Levin says it will extend the program to service-sector employees and will make it easier for workers to afford to continue their health coverage while receiving training for a new job.
Levin and several House leaders told a congressional roundtable discussion July 12 that addressing Americans’ growing economic insecurity and other problems resulting from increasing globalization, job exports and income inequality is a high priority.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), co-chair of the House Democrats’ Steering and Policy Committee, said:
Americans have a job but they are scared it’s going away or that their benefits are going away or they won’t be able to send their kids to college. What do I have to offer them?
Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen, the only workers’ representative on the roundtable, told congressional leaders it is important to pass the Employee Free Choice Act to give workers a collective voice and more job protection in today’s turbulent economy. The House passed the bill, which would allow workers to freely choose a union without employer interference. But Republican obstructionist senators blocked a vote on the bill in that chamber.
The decline in the share of U.S. workers who are represented by unions “has radical consequences,” Cohen said. More than 90 percent of workers “have no voice” in their company’s investment, innovation and other policies. Increasingly, investment decisions are “made elsewhere,” he said.
Cohen also pointed out the destructive impact of the nation’s record trade deficit, which rose to $60 billion in May, up from $58.7 billion in April. And he called for overhauling America’s broken health care system, which is so grossly expensive to employers that it encourages them to take jobs overseas.
When companies make investment decisions—in this country they have to provide workers with health care and that costs about $15,000 a year, almost as much as a minimum-wage annual income. In other countries, they’ve figured out how to take that off the corporate balance sheet and move it to the social balance sheet.
Jeff Faux, author of The Global Class War, urged a temporary halt to new trade agreements while policymakers develop a national plan to deal with globalization. The United States is losing its industrial base and needs “to stop the bleeding,” Faux said.
The roundtable panel was organized by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chair of the House Committee on Financial Services. In addition to Levin, DeLauro, Cohen and Faux, the panel included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and economists Alan Blinder of Princeton University and Matthew Slaughter of Dartmouth College.
Meanwhile, several states have taken action this year on various trade bills, including resolutions calling for an end to Fast Track trade authority and resolutions that say states should have more input into trade decisions.
Fast Track, which expired June 30, allows the president to push through trade deals with no amendments from Congress, such as those that would ensure the deals don’t destroy good U.S. jobs.
Fast Track has been a major weapon in President Bush’s trade arsenal, helping produce flawed agreements such as the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and the proposed agreements with Colombia and South Korea.
The Colorado Legislature passed the Jobs and Democracy Act—versions of which have been introduced in 16 other states. The bill, which Gov. Bill Ritter (D) signed, would give state residents and lawmakers access to vital trade information on the impact of international trade on a state.
The legislation also requires the approval of the state legislature before a state is bound to an international trade agreement. The Hawaii House and Senate, Illinois House, New Hampshire Senate and Nevada House have passed the legislation.
Legislation also is pending in several states that would prohibit them from contracting with or providing economic development assistance to companies that ship work offshore. The legislation also would require a company that ships jobs overseas to repay the state for the work and ban the firm from state contracts for five years. The measure has been introduced in Connecticut, Hawaii, New Hampshire, New York and Oklahoma.
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