As the Industrial Division of CWA, IUE-CWA represents a force of 150,000 active and retired workers united collectively to seek dignity on the job and a secure future for ourselves, our children and all future generations. The Division is headed by President Carl Kennebrew.
U.S. MANUFACTURING IS CRITICAL FOR THE U.S. ECONOMY
Every new manufacturing job we create adds another 1.6 jobs to the local service economy, and for every dollar in manufacturing sales, another $1.34 is added to the economy. Investments in manufacturing have a stronger impact than investments in any other economic sector. Manufacturing also is one of the pathways to stable, middle class employment for millions of workers across the country. Workers in manufacturing jobs earn 22 percent more in annual pay and benefits than the average worker in other industries.
TRADE DEALS HAVE ALREADY DESTROYED MILLIONS OF MANUFACTURING JOBS AND LOWERED WAGES
IUE-CWA is committed to fighting back against broken trade deals designed to only benefit the 1% and multinational corporations. Corporate-written trade and globalization deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), create a race to the bottom in labor, environmental and public health standards that has weakened our protections and undermined American workers’ wages, benefits, and working conditions. The U.S. suffered a 3.4 million net job loss due to just two trade deals – NAFTA and allowing China into the WTO. Most of these were jobs in the manufacturing sector. Overall, sixty thousand U.S. manufacturing facilities closed since NAFTA. One study calculated that the downward pressure on wages and benefits caused by offshoring costs the majority of American households $2,560 each year.
Members of Congress should instead fight for fair trade deals that:
INCLUDE STRONG LABOR AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONS WITH SWIFT AND CERTAIN ENFORCEMENT
Past U.S. trade deals have included weak provisions on labor and the environment with an enforcement mechanism so poorly designed that the U.S. has never once won a single dispute over labor or environmental abuses. A fair trade policy requires much stronger rules with an enforcement mechanism that delivers accountability in a timely way. It also should include stronger rights like cross-border collective bargaining, which would allow workers to join together across borders to negotiate with multinational corporations to raise wages and standards in the U.S. and across the world by preventing corporations from pitting workers in the U.S. against workers in other countries who are denied their rights and are paid unfair wages.
DO NOT INCLUDE SPECIAL HANDOUTS FOR COMPANIES THAT OUTSOURCE JOBS
One key provision of many existing trade deals gives multinational corporations access to a separate judicial system called “Investor-State Dispute Settlement” (ISDS). ISDS has been shown to be rife with conflicts of interest and has routinely been used to attack public interest laws protecting workers, the environment and public health. It also provides special legal protections for companies that move factories or call centers overseas and has been called a “subsidy for outsourcing.”
INCLUDE STRONG RULES OF ORIGIN
Good trade agreements should include strong rules of origin to ensure that the goods and services benefiting from the terms of the agreement are actually produced in the countries that are part of the agreement. Positive standards designed to benefit workers, communities and the environment will achieve little if corporations can use loopholes embedded in weak rules of origin and take advantage of an agreement with goods and services produced elsewhere.
ARE NEGOTIATED TRANSPARENTLY
Instead of the secretive process that allows special access for corporate lobbyists, our trade deals should be negotiated in the light of day with lots of opportunity for public involvement to ensure that the deals reflect the needs of working people, not special interests.
KEEP GOOD-PAYING JOBS AT HOME
Our tax code should help working families, ensure that the super-wealthy and multinational corporations pay their fair share, and encourage the creation of good jobs here in the United States. Introduced by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), the No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act (S. 780/H.R. 1711) would stop rewarding companies that ship jobs overseas and reverse the offshoring incentives embedded in the tax law. The bill:
- Eliminates the tax incentive to move manufacturing facilities overseas by ensuring that companies would not be able to slash their tax bills by moving those jobs out of the country to exploit cheap labor elsewhere.
- Enacts a series of other changes that would block corporate efforts to dodge taxes, such as shifting funds to tax havens.