Hemisphere’s labor leaders denounce trade pact

[Judi Lynn]

Hemisphere’s labor leaders denounce trade pact

By Joan Fleischer Tamen
Business Writer
Posted November 19 2003

As business and government leaders of 34 nations were discussing the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas on Tuesday, union leaders from throughout the hemisphere were denouncing the agreement as bad for workers around the globe.

"There is a great gap that divides our meeting and theirs," said Victor Baez, secretary for social and economic policy with ORIT, the Western Hemisphere federation of trade unions, which says it represents 45 million workers. The unions object to being closed out of trade negotiations. (snip)

(snip) Critics of free trade say the United States should not be encouraging companies to move to other countries where labor is cheap and workers have little or no rights. Even trade unionists throughout the Americas, who would likely win jobs under FTAA, say the current proposal is anti-worker because it offers no minimum wage or worker protections. Instead they decry it as a race to the bottom for the lowest wage, such as production moving from Mexico to China.

The discord over FTAA comes at a time a majority of Americans say that free trade comes at too high a price because local jobs are lost, according to a NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll in September. It found that 54 percent of those surveyed agreed with the statement: "Free trade is not worth it. .. The U.S. needs to focus on keeping jobs for American workers." (snip/)

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-zlabor19nov19,0,1897471.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines