06/12/2015 – Workers, environmentalists and other progressives won a major victory on June 12 when a bipartisan coalition of House members torpedoed a trade bill backed by the White House.
The labor movement and others mounted a major campaign to defeat “fast tracking” of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which has been negotiated in secret between the U.S. and 12 other nations. Fast-track authority would have granted the president the power to negotiate trade deals that cannot be amended by Congress. Today’s vote against a companion bill, known as Trade Adjustment Authority, amounted to a defeat of the main bill.
“American workers came together and spoke with one voice about the path their country and economy should follow,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “We are very grateful for all the activists, families, community leaders, and elected officials who worked so tirelessly for transparency and worker rights in international trade deals.
“The debate over Fast Track so far has been a marvelous contrast to the corporate money and disillusionment that normally mark American politics today,” Trumka said. “This was truly democracy in action – millions of people exercising their free rights to inform their elected representatives. We should all draw from this experience to help replenish our democracy at every level on every issue.
“The conversation now should turn to putting a raising-wages agenda in motion,” he said. “Let’s discard the old ways of arranging corporate trade entitlements, and open a path to revitalizing our economy on the basis of real growth, worker rights, higher wages, and shared prosperity. We look forward to working with any Democrat or Republican committed to a raising wages agenda, including pro-worker trade deals that will transform the American economy and lift up all workers.”
Postal Unions Take a Stand
The postal unions were active in the campaign against the trade deal, participating in protests, organizing opposition in key congressional districts, taking part in lobbying efforts, and mobilizing opposition among union members, retirees and members of the APWU Auxiliary.
“We have urged you to end the undemocratic practice of voting on Trade Promotion Authority before the trade and investment agreements negotiated in secret by our government and its trading partners are made public,” three postal union presidents wrote to members of the House on June 10. “Such authority guarantees enactment of these agreements before their flaws can be democratically debated and amended,” they wrote.
“There is a long history of failure associated with these so‐called ‘free trade’ agreements,” said the letter, which was signed by Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers; Paul Hogrogian, president of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, and APWU President Mark Dimondstein.
The TPP and other proposed trade agreements covered by the Trade Promotion Authority include rules that “could promote privatization and/or dramatically affect the viability of the U.S. Postal Service,” they wrote. “Only Congress should make decisions about our invaluable postal system – not faceless, unaccountable trade negotiators and certainly not the corporate lobbyists who have been given insider access to these secret talks.”
Backers of the trade bill say it will improve the economy, but opponents point out that similar legislation has resulted in job losses.
After intense lobbying by unions and other organizations, Democrats joined Republicans on Friday to kill the companion bill to the main legislation, thereby stopping the main measure.
The House could reconsider the measure next week, but passage is considered unlikely.
Asia will continue 2 kick ass of the politically-correct, narrow-minded ever increasingly senile United States, Canada, and even more so; western Europe!! Boo hoo hoo!!
Keep an eye on ’em , MOE !
er…………NAFTA and GATT which resulted in the hallowing out of manufacturing in the usa (remember ross perot warning about that big sucking sound) and the loss of millions of working class jobs……….happened under demonrats and signed into law during the clinton administration. (jimmy carter deregulated the airline and telecommunication industries in 1978-ten’s of thousands of working class jobs gone when pan am, esterm, twa wnt out of business and att broken up into 10 baby bells) so stop drinking the democrap kool-aid! demonrats are not the saints you would have us believe. ps-guess what the clerks are going to get under a obammy administration….1%, while true inflation is over 6%!
BLUM SCUM, NAFTA and GATT might have been signed by slick Willie, but the house and senate were controlled by republicons! Jimmy my balls are the size of peanuts was one of the first to purpose free trade which became known as NAFTA and Ronnie drools on his ray gun also attempted to craft a NAFTA type piece of legislation. They are all the same and there is not one person announced or popularly hopeful candidate, that is worth their salt! Evil of the lesser is still evil! Sure Obama has not been you good, but do you think Rmoney would have been better? Bush sucked big balls but Kerry would have eaten them! Point being Republican and Democrat are the same just like Del Monte caned beans; they are the same as generic versions, same factory and same crop! It’s up to the owners to decide which ones go in the generic and which one gets stamped Del Monte! Just like it’s not up to us who wins, it’s up to the people with the most money to select which bum becomes president .
Nafta was passed by a Repug senate and house, try looking the vote up if u dont want to spread lies and bear false witness. Furthermore Clinton wasn’t the first President to sign Nafta, Bush Sr was, there;s a pic in his presidential library with him w the Canadian prime minister and the pres of Mexico signing it, it was ratified under Clinton. Clinton signed in in a concession to get FMLA the so many fed employees enjoy now. And wasnt it a Retardlican house and senate who passed the 2006 Postal Enhancement(lol) & Accountability act? U know the one that made us start prefunding retirement benefits 75 yrs into the future, causing an bogus liability resulting in plant closures, cutting employee pay and benefits. Theres a reason y unions( the ones responsible for 40 hr work weeks, benefits etc. DO NOT support the corporate whore Repugs. Silly, brainwashed, ignorant CONservatives have created fine mess of things. I guess we need to put more money in politics like the Repube’s Citizen United? lol
Good news indeed. It is very pathetic that President Obama was on the side of Republicans, eager to cost us even more jobs and making it easier for manufacturers to set up sweat shops and slave labor all over the Pacific. This is not what Democrats should stand for. We expect Republicans to be all about profits for the big cats and fuck the workers, but for Obama to embrace this is just one more reason that I, as a Democrat, consider him a bad president. Perhaps Obamacare will pay off in the near future, but he has sucked up to industry, shit on the middle class, kept the Afghanistan war going full blast and looks like he could escalate more military activity in Iraq.
Maybe the differences between the two parties is so minuscule that it’s almost pointless to even have both of them. I’m all for bipartisanship, but not at the expense of workers and their families.
Now if we could get GOP voters to hold their own people accountable. You don’t have to marry them just because you voted for them.
This was never about trade. It was about Obama wrestling more control over our lives.
its always been about fair trade, not free trade agreements. demonrats and rethuglicans on both sides of the aisle extort money to the highest bidder to throw americans under the bus. it was not the free trade agreement pre say that went down in flames, but the fine print and riders attached to the main bill that did it in. H1-2 visa’s being a typical result……….bring in workers from overseas, have them trained by americans, pay them half of americans pay, and then fire the americans who just trained them out of a job. they are all evil people in washington dc. it just a matter of picking your posion-demonKKK or rethugligan! they don’t care about americans-just who will pay them the most under the table. need term limits to kick these cockroaches to the curb.