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CWA Hopes for Avalanche of Postcards in FTAA Fight
With a postcard or a few mouse clicks, CWA members can join activists throughout North and South America who are fighting to stop the damaging Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement.
CWA is distributing thousands of "Vote No" postcards and brochures to members via its districts and sectors. The cards call for "Good jobs in strong communities. Not NAFTA expansion."
The North American Free Trade Agreement has cost 750,000 American jobs while allowing U.S. companies to set up cheap factories in Mexico, where laws governing workers' rights, job safety, toxic waste and other community and environmental issues are nonexistent or not enforced.
"The FTAA is NAFTA all over again - but 10 times bigger," CWA's brochure says. "It would spread the damage NAFTA has done in three countries to 34 countries and some 800 million people."
CWA and others unions are collecting the postcards, which the AFL-CIO will turn over to an FTAA meeting of the 34 countries' trade ministers in Miami in November. The meeting will continue to lay the groundwork for FTAA, which is expected to be fully developed and put to a vote in the U.S. Congress and other countries by 2005.
Throughout the western hemisphere, unions, environmentalists, social justice groups, students and people of faith have been working together for several years to try to defeat FTAA in its present form. In Brazil, more than 10 million people voted against the agreement last September. On May 1, a half-million trade unionists in Mexico City marched against FTAA.
Locals should soon be receiving postcards to distribute to members. Each brochure comes with two cards, and members are encouraged to give any extras to family and friends.
However, a paper postcard isn't necessary to participate in the campaign. Votes may also be cast online by going to www.cwa union.org/international/ftaa. The site includes a wealth of background information about the pending trade agreement and the impact of NAFTA.
CWA is distributing thousands of "Vote No" postcards and brochures to members via its districts and sectors. The cards call for "Good jobs in strong communities. Not NAFTA expansion."
The North American Free Trade Agreement has cost 750,000 American jobs while allowing U.S. companies to set up cheap factories in Mexico, where laws governing workers' rights, job safety, toxic waste and other community and environmental issues are nonexistent or not enforced.
"The FTAA is NAFTA all over again - but 10 times bigger," CWA's brochure says. "It would spread the damage NAFTA has done in three countries to 34 countries and some 800 million people."
CWA and others unions are collecting the postcards, which the AFL-CIO will turn over to an FTAA meeting of the 34 countries' trade ministers in Miami in November. The meeting will continue to lay the groundwork for FTAA, which is expected to be fully developed and put to a vote in the U.S. Congress and other countries by 2005.
Throughout the western hemisphere, unions, environmentalists, social justice groups, students and people of faith have been working together for several years to try to defeat FTAA in its present form. In Brazil, more than 10 million people voted against the agreement last September. On May 1, a half-million trade unionists in Mexico City marched against FTAA.
Locals should soon be receiving postcards to distribute to members. Each brochure comes with two cards, and members are encouraged to give any extras to family and friends.
However, a paper postcard isn't necessary to participate in the campaign. Votes may also be cast online by going to www.cwa union.org/international/ftaa. The site includes a wealth of background information about the pending trade agreement and the impact of NAFTA.