Fighting Back: On Capitol Hill Focus Shifts from 'Free' to 'Fair' Trade

Fed up with trade policies that have contributed to the loss of 2.7 million manufacturing jobs and 850,000 service jobs since 2001 — jobs in every CWA sector — voters in November elected 22 new members of Congress who made fair trade a centerpiece of their campaigns.

Unions will be working closely with the new lawmakers on an agenda laid out by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in a column for USA Today:

• Ensure that bilateral trade agreements such as those with Peru and Columbia include enforceable protections for workers' rights.
  
  
• End tax breaks for companies that send jobs offshore.
  
  
• Insist that the Chinese government stop manipulating its currency and take concrete steps to improve workers' rights.
  
  
• Invest in cutting-edge education, training, infrastructure and research to give American workers and producers the tools to compete successfully in the global economy.

CWA and the AFL-CIO have also proposed the possibility of levying a temporary import surcharge to help bring America's trade deficit under control, relying on the balance of payments exception under World Trade Organization rules.

"We hope to get their attention and get these issues on their plates before they start filling up," said IUE-CWA President Jim Clark, an outspoken critic of tax breaks to companies that export jobs.

Sweeney said the proposed policy changes are "not the end of free trade, but a much-needed correction in course. Without dramatic changes in trade policy, we will continue to hemorrhage good jobs, while corporations take advantage of workers whose basic human rights are violated."

Perhaps the most outspoken critic of so-called "free trade," is newly-elected Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who was strongly supported by CWA. The former Ohio congressman said that his state alone has lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs in the past five years.

 Brown, who authored "The Myths of Free Trade: Why American Trade Policy Has Failed," led the fight in Congress against the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). He proposes that U.S. trade policy reward corporations that create jobs at home and champions fair trade initiatives that protect workers here and abroad.

Fair trade advocates who defeated so-called free trade incumbents Nov. 7 include Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Robert Casey (D-Pa.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Jim Webb (D-Va.). They are joined by former representative and newly elected Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.).

On the House side, fair trade candidates who replaced free trade incumbents include Reps. Harry Mitchell (D-Ariz.), Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Ron Klein (D-Fla.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa), Nancy Boyda (D-Kan.), John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), Tim Walz (D-Minn.), Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.), Paul Hodes (D-N.H.), John Hall (D-N.Y.), Heath Shuler (D-N.C.), Jason Altmire (D-Pa.), Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) and Chris Carney (D-Pa.).

An additional 11 House seats where the incumbent did not run for reelection went to fair trade advocates Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.), Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Bruce Braley (D-Iowa), Mike Arcuri (D-N.Y.), Zach Space (D-Ohio), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Nick Lampson (D-Texas) and Steve Kagen (D-Wis.).

Already, Democratic lawmakers have drafted letters to President Bush letting him know they will oppose so-called free trade pacts with Colombia and Peru because they lack sufficient labor standards.

The proposed Colombian pact is particularly offensive to the labor movement as more than 1,200 union organizers and rank-and-file activists have been killed there in recent years by paramilitary death squads with alleged ties to Colombian lawmakers.

Bush is also expected to face opposition from fair trade advocates when his special trade promotion authority, or "fast-track," comes up for renewal by Congress later this year. Under fast-track, congress must vote trade agreements up or down in their entirety without amendment.