Resolution: 72A-10-5
Adopted: July 27, 2010
Recently, the Obama Administration announced its intention to complete the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) by the time of the G20 meeting in Seoul, South Korea, in November. This 2007 agreement, negotiated by the Bush Administration, achieved free access to Korean financial markets for U.S. banks, but failed to support U.S. manufacturing, failed to make improvements in workers’ rights, and failed to protect procurement provisions in federal, state, and local government decisions.
The current U.S. trade deficit with South Korea is $13 billion. This means South Korea sold U.S. citizens $13 billion more in goods and services than U.S. workers produced and sold to the South Korean citizens. Eliminating that imbalance would put more than 150,000 U.S. workers back to work.
More than 70 percent of our trade deficit with South Korea is in the auto sector. The Bush-era Agreement cements the current trade imbalance by allowing South Korea to produce 600,000 cars each year for export to the U.S. while limiting U.S. auto exports to South Korea to only 10,000 cars.
Trade union movements in both the U.S and South Korea have identified an agenda for change to improve workers’ bargaining power. First, from the U.S. perspective, would be improving union organizing rights and collective bargaining coverage. Ironically, private sector workers in South Korea can join unions and bargain collectively, while in the U.S. these rights are severely limited. At Hyundai, a $25 billion auto company, South Korean workers have a strong union, while workers at the Alabama Hyundai plant have no real chance of forming a union.
The South Korean trade union movement has identified a number of changes in existing laws and practices that would improve its ability to bargain successfully and lift workers’ standard of living. Current South Korean laws and practices that serve to undermine trade union activity include provisions that place substantial limitations on the right to strike, impose criminal and civil sanctions for “obstruction of business,” and permit the rapidly growing use of short-term and subcontracted labor. The explosion of contracting and lowering labor costs is one export the Bush negotiators insisted be included in the KORUS FTA. The South Korean trade union movement also has raised their concerns about off-shoring – from Korea to China and other lower wage countries.
We support bilateral trade agreements that benefit a majority of workers, businesses and consumers. We want the U.S. to pass trade deals that help bring about larger societal goals of economic justice, sustainable communities and a sound environment, and human rights, including trade union rights. We urge the Obama Administration to ensure that the KORUS FTA promotes these values.
Resolved: CWA opposes the 2007 U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement as signed by President Bush and urges the Obama administration to renegotiate the Agreement focusing on fixing the trade deficit, promoting U.S. manufacturing, and protecting procurement provisions in federal, state, and local government decisions.
Resolved: CWA urges the Obama administration to incorporate the key elements of the Employee Free Choice Act in the legislation that would implement the renegotiated U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement.