Fighting the Attack on GOOD JOBS: Trade Policy Threatens Service Jobs, Too

DAVID MARTIN
Senior Government Affairs Representative, AFA-CWA

Why should international trade policy matter to workers outside of the manufacturing sector?

The answer is that America's current trade policy has an enormous — and negative — impact on workers in every industry, including CWA members in the service sector.

Trade is commonly defined as "an exchange of one thing for another." However, the so-called free trade agreements that the Bush administration has negotiated fail to meet that definition. At least as far as the impact on jobs is concerned, there is no even exchange — the good jobs go in one direction, away from our shores.

Trade deals like the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) are really offshoring agreements that not only allow but actually reward corporations for shifting jobs out of America. For example, the administration and Congress shifted millions of dollars to "education programs" to teach Central Americans "how to be better employees" and improve their English. This training is intended to help create 8,000 call center jobs in Costa Rica alone.

The chief problem with CAFTA and other trade deals is a lack of enforceable labor standards among the nations we trade with, keeping American workers at a perpetual disadvantage in competing with low-wage workers around the globe.

"Free trade" agreements have had a huge impact on manufacturing jobs, but they also have cost hundreds of thousands of service sector jobs — the ones that were supposed to replace lost factory jobs. Prior to President Clinton's signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993, America had a trade surplus in the service sector with Mexico and Canada. That surplus has turned into a deficit today.

Forrester Research reports that 850,000 service sector jobs have gone offshore since 2001, and some estimates say 14 million information-based jobs potentially can be sent to other countries.

Supporters of trade liberalization say these agreements create new American jobs. However, the new jobs pay, on average, 21 percent less than those that go offshore and are far less likely to provide health and retirement benefits.

We shouldn't expect things to change unless we change the makeup of Congress — starting this November — and the White House in 2008. The powerful friends and donors of today's government leadership share the attitude of President Bush's former chief economic advisor Gregory Mankiw, who famously stated: "Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade."