Labor Voices

Voters want fair trade, not free trade
Congress should insist trade pacts have labor rules and job guarantees

The results of last week's elections loudly call for a change in direction in major national policy fronts -- in particular, the war in Iraq and trade policies.

We are safe for now in leaving the discussions about the Iraq war and its solution to critics led by Michigan's own Sen. Carl Levin. But more discussion about trade is warranted today, when President George W. Bush is in Asia pushing for even more trade agreements.

In a significant change, many rural voters went Democrat this year, both in Michigan and across America. They were responding to economic pressures -- fears of unfunded retirements, bankruptcy-level health care costs and rising tuition. Those cost and investment pressures weigh most heavily when matched with income worries.

Farmers reflect trade fear

For the manufacturing worker it's, "Will my job be outsourced next?" For the farmer it's, "Will another trade agreement put yet another crop into worldwide price-cutting competition?" And for the rural small business person the worry is, "When my customers suffer, how long before I am next?"

All Americans are better off when our nation engages in trade, but working-class Americans can only benefit with the right kinds of trade arrangements. We in the labor movement believe voters said: Negotiate trade agreements that add or protect jobs in America.

Voters urged Congress to learn the difference between a trade pact with mutual benefits for workers in both countries, and one that encourages runaway manufacturing. We know this because that was our message to our members.

Unionized workers responded, according to a poll, by giving 82 percent of their voting support to Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who was an effective voice for fair trade during the election.

Trade pacts need labor rules

Democrats who were elected and re-elected have called for including labor standards in trade agreements. No more fast-track authority for the president, which ties the hands of Congress from amending trade agreements and only allows an up or down vote on what the administration negotiates.

They said we must make it illegal for our fair trade partners to use child and prison labor.

Workers in any country with trade agreements with America must have the right to organize into free trade associations and bargain with their employers (they don't in China).

Trade agreements should leverage gains in other countries' wages, employment laws and living standards. Quick, certain and clear enforcement mechanisms need to be included so trade violations are stopped.

But more steps must be considered to improve trade pacts.

Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich has called for amending the Central American Free Trade Agreement (and other trade pacts) to require that every nation have a mandatory minimum wage that is half of that nation's median income.

Turn poor into consumers

Under such a rule, rather than being locked into poverty by "free" trade, workers at the bottom would be lifted up and turned into consumers (maybe even to buy USA made goods).

There is one very important amendment to trade agreements that we believe Americans want. It would turn free trade agreements to fair trade agreements by including provisions for creating jobs in America. Trade agreements should encourage or even specify what products would be imported from America. A trade agreement with South Korea should stipulate that the United States sell approximately as many cars there as we import from South Korea. This ensures that Korean or other consumers purchase products made in America.

These types of provisions make common sense not only to trade union members but also to those voters who swung this election. Newly elected Democrats should pay attention.