{"id":13920,"date":"2011-10-06T00:27:04","date_gmt":"2011-10-06T00:27:04","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-10-06T00:27:04","modified_gmt":"2011-10-06T00:27:04","slug":"californians-fight-back-on-jobkilling-free-trade-agreements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2011\/10\/06\/californians-fight-back-on-jobkilling-free-trade-agreements\/","title":{"rendered":"Californians Fight Back on Job-Killing Free Trade Agreements"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>by Tim Robertson, California Fair Trade Coalition <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Activists from around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/event.php?eid=200664176671557\">California are fighting back<\/a>  against three NAFTA-style Free Trade Agreements introduced in Congress  on Monday. The deals, originally negotiated by President Bush in 2007,  have drawn the ire of voters across party lines because they will cost  U.S. jobs and challenge labor and environmental conditions in the U.S.  and abroad.<\/p>\n<p> \tThe deals, with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama, are expected to have  a vote in Congress within a week, but Californians are the key to  stopping them, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/event.php?eid=200664176671557\">they&#39;re standing up<\/a>. Led by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.calaborfed.org\/\">California Labor Federation<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/California-Fair-Trade-Coalition\/238219779529960\">California Fair Trade Coalition<\/a>,  thousands of voters from around the state have already called their  Members of Congress and thousands more are likely to do so over the next  several days. This final reminder to undecided Members of Congress will  help swing them against these job-killing deals.<\/p>\n<p> \t<strong>You can join them now by calling 1-800-718-1008.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p> \tEach deal has its own set of problems, but one thing&#39;s certain &#8212; these  deals will cost Americans jobs. The U.S. International Trade Commission  has long said these deals will increase the U.S. trade deficit overall,  particularly in important California industries such as such as  electronic equipment; auto and auto parts; metal and ironwork; and  textiles and apparel. Using these numbers, the Economic Policy Institute  found that over 200,000 jobs would be lost.<\/p>\n<p> \tBut there&#39;s more. Here are <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.aflcio.org\/2011\/10\/04\/workers-take-to-capitol-hill-to-stop-korea-colombia-and-panama-trade-deals\/\">key facts from the AFL-CIO<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> \t\t<strong>The Korea agreement is the largest offshoring deal of its kind since NAFTA. <\/strong>If  enacted, it likely will displace 159,000 U.S. jobs, mostly in  manufacturing. And its glaring loopholes would allow unscrupulous  businesses to import illegally labeled goods from China and possibly  even from sweatshops in North Korea &ndash; potentially without any tariffs at  all.<\/li>\n<li> \t\t<strong>In Colombia, one trade unionist is murdered almost every week and almost none of the murderers is brought to justice. <\/strong>In  2010, 51 trade unionists were assassinated in Colombia &ndash; more than in  the rest of the world combined. So far in 2011, another 22 have been  killed, despite Colombia&rsquo;s heralded &ldquo;Labor Action Plan.&rdquo; Would we reward  a country where 51 CEOs were killed last year?<\/li>\n<li> \t\t<strong>And the Panama agreement has many of the problems of the other two deals<\/strong>,  like deregulating big banks and letting foreign investors bypass U.S.  health, safety, labor and environmental laws. Panama is also a tax  haven: a place where tax-dodging, money-laundering millionaires and  billionaires hide their money. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> \tThis is the largest package of FTAs since NAFTA and time is running out  to stop them. But with unemployment near record highs, the long history  of job loss through NAFTA and similar deals, and the governments own  projections of job loss, it is critical that everyone take a stand  today.<\/p>\n<p> \tFortunately, these deals still face a tough test as many in Congress  have vowed to oppose the deals, and Californians have access to many of  the undecided representatives &ndash; all they need to do is call. We&#39;ve seen  NAFTA-style trade shutter our factories and offshore our jobs, it&#39;s time  to reverse this course before there are no more jobs left to lose.<\/p>\n<p>  \t<strong>Please call 1-800-718-1008 today. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><em>by Tim Robertson, California Fair Trade Coalition <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Activists from around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/event.php?eid=200664176671557\">California are fighting back<\/a>  against three NAFTA-style Free Trade Agreements introduced in Congress  on Monday. The deals, originally negotiated by President Bush in 2007,  have drawn the ire of voters across party lines because they will cost  U.S. jobs and challenge labor and environmental conditions in the U.S.  and abroad.<\/p>\n<p> \tThe deals, with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama, are expected to have  a vote in Congress within a week, but Californians are the key to  stopping them, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/event.php?eid=200664176671557\">they&#39;re standing up<\/a>. Led by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.calaborfed.org\/\">California Labor Federation<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/California-Fair-Trade-Coalition\/238219779529960\">California Fair Trade Coalition<\/a>,  thousands of voters from around the state have already called their  Members of Congress and thousands more are likely to do so over the next  several days. This final reminder to undecided Members of Congress will  help swing them against these job-killing deals.<\/p>\n<p> \t<strong>You can join them now by calling 1-800-718-1008.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p> \tEach deal has its own set of problems, but one thing&#39;s certain &#8212; these  deals will cost Americans jobs. The U.S. International Trade Commission  has long said these deals will increase the U.S. trade deficit overall,  particularly in important California industries such as such as  electronic equipment; auto and auto parts; metal and ironwork; and  textiles and apparel. Using these numbers, the Economic Policy Institute  found that over 200,000 jobs would be lost.<\/p>\n<p> \tBut there&#39;s more. Here are <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.aflcio.org\/2011\/10\/04\/workers-take-to-capitol-hill-to-stop-korea-colombia-and-panama-trade-deals\/\">key facts from the AFL-CIO<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> \t\t<strong>The Korea agreement is the largest offshoring deal of its kind since NAFTA. <\/strong>If  enacted, it likely will displace 159,000 U.S. jobs, mostly in  manufacturing. And its glaring loopholes would allow unscrupulous  businesses to import illegally labeled goods from China and possibly  even from sweatshops in North Korea &ndash; potentially without any tariffs at  all.<\/li>\n<li> \t\t<strong>In Colombia, one trade unionist is murdered almost every week and almost none of the murderers is brought to justice. <\/strong>In  2010, 51 trade unionists were assassinated in Colombia &ndash; more than in  the rest of the world combined. So far in 2011, another 22 have been  killed, despite Colombia&rsquo;s heralded &ldquo;Labor Action Plan.&rdquo; Would we reward  a country where 51 CEOs were killed last year?<\/li>\n<li> \t\t<strong>And the Panama agreement has many of the problems of the other two deals<\/strong>,  like deregulating big banks and letting foreign investors bypass U.S.  health, safety, labor and environmental laws. Panama is also a tax  haven: a place where tax-dodging, money-laundering millionaires and  billionaires hide their money. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> \tThis is the largest package of FTAs since NAFTA and time is running out  to stop them. But with unemployment near record highs, the long history  of job loss through NAFTA and similar deals, and the governments own  projections of job loss, it is critical that everyone take a stand  today.<\/p>\n<p> \tFortunately, these deals still face a tough test as many in Congress  have vowed to oppose the deals, and Californians have access to many of  the undecided representatives &ndash; all they need to do is call. We&#39;ve seen  NAFTA-style trade shutter our factories and offshore our jobs, it&#39;s time  to reverse this course before there are no more jobs left to lose.<\/p>\n<p>  \t<strong>Please call 1-800-718-1008 today. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2360,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-3Cw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2360"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}