CWA, Members of Congress, Allies Keep up the Fight Against the TPP

CWA President Chris Shelton joined members of Congress and environmental, labor and faith leaders at a Capitol Hill news conference. Their message: “the Trans-Pacific Partnership is too dangerous for us simply to stand aside and let it pass.”

“We’ll lose hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs to the TPP; we can’t let that happen,” said President Shelton. “We can’t compete with countries where almost slavery is allowed.”

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), who is leading the congressional fight against the TPP, said, “after seven years of secrecy we can finally see the details of this deal in the light of day” and it’s clear that no one has listened to the concerns of working people. “When the jobs and wages of working families are jeopardized by a bad trade agreement, we risk engaging in a global ‘race to the bottom’ that our country cannot afford, and that our middle class does not deserve,” she said. 

In another action, more than 1,500 organizations – members of the Citizens Trade Campaign Coalition – signed a letter to members of Congress calling on them to reject the TPP. The letter outlined Americans’ concerns about the trade deal, including the offshoring of U.S. jobs, undermining environmental protections, putting food safety at risk, increasing pharmaceutical costs, and placing corporate profits over human rights and democracy.

“TPP’s labor standards are grossly inadequate to the task of protecting human rights abroad and jobs here at home,” they wrote. Read the letter here.

“All these organizations are made up of working people, people who could lose their jobs because of the TPP,” Shelton said. “We need to make sure that members of Congress who support the TPP lose their jobs.”