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Issues To Watch In 2014
http://www.buzzfeed.com/cwaunion/7-issues-to-watch-in-2014-efff
Imagination is the creative force that through necessity yields solutions to resolve the issues that face us. posted on January 10, 2014 at 10:41am EST
1. Fast Track and the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiators may have missed their 2013 deadline to wrap up the deal, but “fast track” remains a serious threat.
Leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee, which have jurisdiction over trade deals, have agreed on speeding the TPP through Congress using “fast track” – also known as Trade Promotion Authority – which would limit lawmakers to an up-or-down vote on the TPP without any amendments.
Senator Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., introduced a “fast track” bill on Thursday, January 9, 2014.
This is dangerous. Despite loud protests about the lack of transparency in the TPP negotiating process, the public and many members of Congress still don’t even know what’s in this massive trade deal covering 12 Pacific Rim countries. More than 600 corporate advisors can read and comment on the negotiating texts, while labor, environmental, public health, consumer and open Internet groups are left relying on leaks to glean important information about the agreement.
What we do know is terrifying: The TPP would give corporations new powers to attack important workers’ rights, environmental and public health protections. It would offshore millions of American jobs and erode wages here at home. It would decrease access to life-saving medicines and flood the U.S. marketplace with unsafe food.
We can’t let this bad deal rush through Congress unchecked. Remember: The TPP is FOREVER.
That’s why CWA has joined together with our coalition partners – Sierra Club, Citizens Trade Campaign, Public Citizen and others – to stop this attack on working conditions. None of us can win this fight alone. But together we can stand up and fight back.
ALL seven at link.