America’s Abusive Relationship with Free Trade-Obsessed Politicians

[marmar]

from In These Times:



America’s Abusive Relationship with Free Trade-Obsessed Politicians
BY LEO GERARD, UNITED STEELWORKERS PRESIDENT


America is in an abusive relationship with trade-obsessed politicians and corporations.

Despite their long history of battering the U.S. middle class with bad trade deal after bad trade deal, these lawmakers and CEOs contend workers should believe that their new proposal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), will be different. President Obama and the CEO of Nike, a company that doesn’t manufacture one shoe in the United States, got together in Oregon on Friday to urge Americans to fall once again for a trade deal.

The trade fanatics say everything will be different under the TPP—even though it is based on deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that lured American factories across the border, destroyed good-paying jobs and devastated communities. They plead: “Just come back for one more deal and see how great it will be this time!” And, like all batterers, they say: “Sorry about the terrible past; trust me about the future.”

This is trade abuse.

At the Nike world headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, the chief executive officer of Air Jordans told the chief executive passenger of Air Force One that Americans should believe in the TPP because it’ll be like Santa Claus stuffing jobs down chimneys across America. .....................(more)

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17938/trans_pacific_partnership_jobs