How to Fight for a Better NAFTA

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) joined CWA President Chris Shelton, CWA District 4 VP Linda L. Hinton, and IUE-CWA President Jim Clark on a town hall call to discuss how CWA members and working people can get involved during the NAFTA renegotiation process.

Hinton said, "All of us have seen over the past few decades what bad trade deals that don't focus on workers actually do to our jobs, our livelihoods, and our communities. Now that NAFTA is being renegotiated, we have an opportunity to fix the deal and make it work for working people."

"We've shown and proved that we can win. But we also know if we don't fight, we will lose. We have to be all in on this," said Clark.

Shelton said, "Many of the same battles we fought over the TPP are the same battles that we're gearing up for right now. We all know exactly whose interest the TPP would've benefited: multinational corporations. NAFTA serves the interest of those corporations in many of the same ways the TPP did. NAFTA has weak labor and environmental standards with enforcement provisions that are designed to fail."

Senator Brown commended CWA members for their hard work on trade issues. "Thanks for what your union does on so many things, and especially what you're doing right now on NAFTA renegotiations. There's no union out there that's been more engaged in the fight on trade issues than CWA. It's so important to keep the pressure on. We need you to work with your local members, go to your county labor federation and get other unions engaged and involved. We've got to make sure that this Administration stays at the table until we get a deal that works for workers."

"We need a new NAFTA to protect American jobs, raise wages, and help all workers – not just the corporate bottom line," Shelton said. "We know that this will be a big fight, but we won our last fight against these same corporate interests when we defeated the TPP. We did that because all of you worked extremely hard to hold our politicians accountable and to make sure our voices were heard loud and clear by our senators and representatives. We need to do that hard work again."

Listen to the full call here.

Read President Shelton's op-ed in the Palm Beach Post on what a better NAFTA should look like.