WHEREAS:
Rising trade deficits and unfair trade deals, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, have cost the United States more than three million jobs since 1994; and

WHEREAS:
The Bush administration continues to promote the Colombia Free Trade Agreement despite Colombia’s notorious record of violence against union activists and human rights abuses, including the murder of over 2,500 unionists since 1986 and countless death threats, attacks and acts of intimidation against workers who support joining a union or advocate for workers’ rights;  and

WHEREAS:
The U.S. trade deficit with China alone has ballooned to almost $295 billion while Chinese workers have been systematically deprived of the right to join unions and bargain collectively, subjected to unsafe working conditions, forced into servitude and denied the protection of a fair wage; and

WHEREAS:
Unscrupulous employers in the U.S. often threaten to close a plant or relocate to a country with lower labor costs and weaker worker protections when faced with a union organizing drive; and

WHEREAS:
The promotion of free trade has come at the expense of fairness to America’s working families and harmed the country as a whole; and

WHEREAS:
The Bush administration has attempted to allow states to privatize the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, which was created in 1974 to provide income support and retraining to workers who lose their jobs due to trade, and has resisted recent congressional efforts to expand TAA to cover public sector workers and to increase funding for the training and case management assistance available under the program.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
That AFSCME supports strengthening basic labor protections in all current and future trade agreements and strives to ensure that workers across the globe receive reasonable wages and benefits and have the right to join a union; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME will work with Congress to ensure the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program is extended to help workers who have lost their jobs due to bad trade policies with insufficient protections for labor rights and environmental standards; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:
That AFSCME will fight to include a requirement that the TAA program covers public employees and not be privatized, as was previously proposed in a draft Labor Department regulation. AFSCME will also ask that new resources are provided for case management assistance for workers affected by trade.
 
 
SUBMITTED BY: Mike Marvin, Executive Director
Ryan McKay, Chairman and Delegate
NAPE/AFSCME Local 61
Nebraska