New Trade Policies Needed to Protect Workers
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Columbia University law professor Mark Barenberg proposes new strategies to ensure that trade agreements protect and advance workers’ rights and says “we should incorporate labor rights and standards in the fundamental ground rules of the new global economy.”
Barenberg is author of a report released today, “Sustaining Workers’ Bargaining Power in an Age of Globalization.” In the report, he argues that trade pacts need rules to allow human rights organizations to constantly monitor whether U.S. trading partners actually comply with international labor rules.
The report, released by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) as part of its Agenda for Shared Prosperity, suggests specific policies that would result in the same type of tough enforcement rules to protect workers’ rights that now exist for violations of property rights in trade agreements.
Jobs with Justice Week of Action: Demanding Real Economic Recovery
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This week marks the one-year anniversary of the Wall Street bailout, and Jobs with Justice (JwJ) is launching a Week of Action to demand that the banks use our taxpayer dollars to finance the recovery and not their own corporate agenda.
During the Sept. 24-Oct. 1 week of action, working people will join with students, activists, community leaders and others across the country to highlight Big Banks’ misuse of tax dollars. So far, few of the billions in taxpayer money that went to Big Banks have reached Main Street. Instead, executives of banks that were bailed out with taxpayer dollars have lined their pockets with stock options that guarantee them huge windfalls for years. While they get richer, they have laid off more than 160,000 employees since Jan. 1, 2008.
To top it all off, Bank of America, which received $45 billion in taxpayer-funded bailout support, has spent more than $1.5 million lobbying on Capitol Hill against the reforms that would protect consumers from a future financial crisis, such as restrictions on executive compensation, home mortgage lending and credit card fees. The bank also is lobbying on a consumer rights bill, on student lending issues, on a bill that would’ve allowed bankruptcy judges to alter mortgages and on a proposed federal regulatory oversight agency.
Obama Enforces Trade Laws on China Tire Imports
President Obama took decisive action yesterday to provide relief to the domestic consumer tire industry in response to surging exports of tires from China. His actions will bring relief to many workers and their families and reverse course after eight years of neglect of trade laws by the Bush administration.
In July, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled in favor of a United Steelworkers (USW) petition filed under Section 421 of the Trade Act of 1974. The ITC found that tariff relief was needed to urgently reduce the negative impact of those tire imports. Obama’s decision imposes an increased duty on tires from China for three years. The duties are 35 percent in the first year, then 30 percent and 25 percent in each of the following years.
Why Labor Day Matters
Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, says this Labor Day provides an opportunity for progressives to join together to rebuild the economy and reinvigorate the fight for social and economic justice.
Labor Day is a time to celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of working people throughout the generations. American workers are among the most productive in the world. Labor unions have been a positive social force that helped to build the American middle class, to improve wages and working conditions, to provide for health care and retirement benefits, and to ensure that the wealth generated by working people is fairly distributed.
But Labor Day 2009 finds the U.S. economy in the worst recession in decades. Bank failures, corporate downsizing, the mortgage crisis and tremendous economic insecurity are signs of the times. The United States has lost more than 6 million jobs, and more than 45 million Americans are without health care.
The economic policies of the Bush administration brought us to where we are today. I would summarize the policies of the Bush administration as the “three D’s”—deregulation, deindustrialization and deunionization.
Paramilitary Members Face Justice in Murders of Two Colombian Union Leaders
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Eight long years after Colombian trade union leaders Valmore Locarno Rodriguez and Victor Hugo Orcasita Amaya were assassinated, those directly responsible for these heinous crimes are being punished.
Just yesterday, Alcides Maneul Mattos Tavares, alias “el Samario,” confessed to having participated as one of the gunmen. The other assassin, Jairo Charris Jesus, was sentenced Aug. 7 to 30 years in prison for his role in the murders. Both men were members of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), the umbrella paramilitary organization.
Two other paramilitary leaders, Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, alias “Jorge 40,” and Oscar Jose Ospina Pacheco, alias “Tolemaida,” also face trial for their involvement in these crimes. Tovar’s case is complicated, however, by the fact that he was extradited to the United States on drug-trafficking charges earlier this year.
Locarno and Orcasita, president and vice president, respectively, of Sintramienergica, the mine and energy workers union, were killed in March 2001. Both worked for the U.S.-based mining multinational, Drummond.
NAFTA Has Failed; New Development Plan Needed
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The governments of the United States, Canada and Mexico must take serious and comprehensive measures to address the dual impact of the global economic recession and the 15-year legacy of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), labor leaders of the three countries said in a joint declaration.
The “Tri-National Labor Declaration on Social and Economic Prosperity for North America” points out that the Leaders Summit in Mexico City earlier this week was an opportunity to lay out a new agenda for North America, one that could make our region competitive, sustainable and just.
NAFTA did not create thousands of promised good jobs—the jobs it did create were less stable, with lower wages and fewer benefits, the leaders said. Increased trade largely benefited the corporate elite in all three countries, and income inequality has also grown in the region, they said. And the economic crisis has only exacerbated the problems.
Tell Policymakers Why Colombia Free Trade Is a Bad Idea
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After eight years of being pushed out of discussions over bad trade agreements, America’s working people now have a chance to personally let policymakers know what they really think about one of the most controversial trade deals.
In an announcement in the July 29 Federal Register, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) asks for comments on the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. USTR is conducting a review of labor-related issues in the context of the agreement and is seeking “comment from the public to assist the USTR in working with the Colombian government to secure continued progress in ensuring that Colombia’s workers can fully exercise their fundamental labor rights.”
Written comments are due by noon, Sept. 15, 2009. Comments should be submitted electronically online at www.regulations.gov. For alternatives to online submissions, contact Gloria Blue at 202-395-3475.
Obama’s New Trade Enforcement Measures a Welcome First Step
The Obama administration unveiled new trade enforcement measures aimed at saving jobs and creating new jobs in the United States by leveling the global playing field for American workers and businesses.
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, speaking today at a U.S. Steel plant in Braddock, Pa., near Pittsburgh, said the administration is committed to better enforcement of America’s trade laws, including workers’ rights around the world.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney praised the commitment to better oversight and enforcement of trade laws.
This is a welcome and long-overdue initiative, and we look forward to working with USTR, Commerce and Labor, among others, to identify and address unfair trade practices that disadvantage domestic producers and workers.
We hope this is only a first installment in President Obama’s pledge to reform our flawed trade policies, however. Enforcement is crucial, but we also need to revisit and strengthen our trade policies and trade laws if we are to rebuild our economy with a vibrant and thriving manufacturing sector.
TRADE Act Would Overhaul Bad Trade Policy
Today, a bipartisan group in Congress said they will reintroduce a major legislative overhaul of the nation’s failed trade policies to put good jobs at the center of a coherent global economic strategy.
The Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act, which has 106 co-sponsors, was first introduced last year but did not come to the floor. It would require a review of existing trade agreements, establish standards for future trade agreements, protect workers’ rights and help restore congressional oversight of trade agreements.
Old Economy Doesn’t Work—Time for a New Model
An economy in which the rest of the world produces and America consumes no longer works. The United States must begin to make more of the things we consume. That will require a new vision for our economy and concrete actions to change the core policies that created the current global economic crisis.
Speaking during a workshop at the America’s Future Now conference this morning, several members of a panel on global economic strategy said the key to long-term economic recovery is the creation of a new economic model that emphasizes production and savings, not consumption.
That new vision must include actions to fight the major causes of the collapse of U.S. manufacturing—currency manipulation, trade policies that foster a race to the cheapest sources of labor, tax policies that encourage companies to move offshore and the imbalance of power between workers and employers.
