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Workers Lose Jobs to Trade—and Now Republican Trio Blocks Their Benefits |
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Three Republican senators led by Jon Kyl of Arizona ruined the holidays of tens of thousands of working people whose jobs were shipped overseas because of the flawed U.S. trade policies that encourage employers to move offshore. The senators blocked a unanimous consent agreement to extend the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program for three months.
TAA provides financial assistance and training to workers who lost their job due to imports or offshoring. The program is set to expire Dec. 31. Even though the House approved an extension last week, the Senate failed to do so yesterday before adjourning for the year.
Nearly 120,000 workers were certified as eligible to receive TAA benefits from Oct. 1, 2005, through Sept. 30, 2006, according to the Congressional Budget Office. During that same period, roughly 60,000 individuals started to receive cash and training benefits.
The three Senate Republicans weren’t even concerned with TAA—they held the bill hostage because they wanted to make changes to the Federal Aviation Administration trust fund.
Because of their political pettiness, thousands of workers throughout the country will be denied vital benefits to support their families under this important program. They will receive no financial assistance, no job training, no help maintaining health insurance and no wage insurance if they are forced to take a lower-paying job.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) blasted the Republicans, saying:
Holding American workers hostage to leverage unrelated priorities is bad enough at any time of year, but it’s hard to believe that in the week before Christmas, a political move will stop training, money and other assistance for hard-working folks in need.
Baucus, who introduced comprehensive TAA legislation in July, secured a promise from the U.S. Labor Department to continue the program through 2008 with funds provided in the omnibus appropriations bill passed Tuesday. But Senate Democrats say the reality is that the funds are not guaranteed until the program is reauthorized and they will mount an effort to renew the program when they return to work in January.
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Those 10’s of thousands of working people, hopefully will remember what the anti people Republicans have done to them over the past 7+ years, come election day 2008!
In the article the 3 Senators need to be named so they can be contacted about this action they have taken.
The article contains a key phrase: “jobs were shipped overseas because of the flawed U.S. trade policies that encourage employers to move offshore.”
Yes, three two-bit Republican Senators blocked the unanimous consent agreement. That outrage was arranged in the Republican Senate Caucus. They take turns being the “bad guy” It’s the old “good cop/bad cop” routine. What else would you expect? Honesty and justice? Don’t hold your breath.
Let’s not forget, however, that it was a Democratic President (Clinton) and a Democrat-controlled Congress that shoved NAFTA down our throats. (Pelosi and Reid both voted “AYE”.) WTO and CAFTA weren’t far behind.
Only one presidential candidate promises to withdraw the U.S. from those anti-worker, anti-labor, pro-corporate sell-out trade agreements. That person is Representative Dennis Kucinich. He is also the only candidate who is co-author of a bill in Congress that would solve our nation’s health care crisis. It is HR 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act.
He has a 12 point plan to end the war on Iraq. He has a written proposal to rebuild America’s infrastructure, thereby putting Americans back to work replacing decaying bridges, roads, schools, etc. What’s more, those jobs would provide family-sustaining wages and benefits.
If you like unfettered free-trade, you’ll just love throwing your support to one of the other candidates. If you’re hunky-dory with the health care mess, a candidate other than Kucinich should make you feel right at home. If more lousy roads, schools, etc. are your thing, one of the other candidates is for you!
If amazes me that some labor statesmen have “opted” to endorse other candidates. Why they cozy up to the people who are parties to the problems facing working class Americans is beyond me. Perhaps being invited to an inaugural ball trumps membership representation.
Hey fellow workers…had enough? If your answer is “yes”, then do something about it!
Labor’s heritage is militant activism in the struggle for social and economic justice…and peace. What we’re seeing today is acquiescence. Some truly heroic labor leaders of yore are rolling over in their graves. And the rest of us are losing more and more with each passing day of passivity.
Kucinich is the ONLY choice if you want to undo the damage caused by NAFTA, CAFTA and the WTO. If you want to expand job killing, so called “free trade” agreements, support Hillary. She is a bigger supporter of these destructive trade agreements than George W. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and attended the last meeting of the Bilderbergers. So, if you want to see the U.S. become a country merged into a North American Union, vote for Hillary. Kucinich is by far the best choice. John Edwards is probably second, but I have a hard time believeing in him because he wants to keep NAFTA.
Hello,
Not all Republican candidates have forgotten the everyday
american. The one Republican candidate that is opposed to NAFTA, against the unfair MFN status of China, and against unfair trade deals is Duncan Hunter. I submit the following videos to
confirm his perspective:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7VAnby4a6k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDoO_TcpysE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxhToQbIr1I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T956Ta0samw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAUHTzTMzGc
If there are any AFL-CIO members inclined to vote Republican, they should give Duncan Hunter a strong look — and he needs your support because the big business wing of the Republican party doesn’t like him…
Perhaps Duncan Hunter should have considered courting Labor’s vote from the beginning of his political career. He has a 19% favorable lifetime voting record with Labor as a Congressman. Surely, you are not suggesting that Labor abandon several of the Democratic Candidates that have been with us upwards of 95% in favor of someone like Congressman Hunter; are you?!?