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Fair Trade, Not Free Trade

Anti-worker forces in Congress and the Bush Administration are working right now on another job-killing trade deal modeled after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the recently passed Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). 

 

Congress is expected to vote soon on a trade agreement with Peru. We have a chance to defeat it. 

 

We need your help now. Tell your representatives in Congress to Vote Against the Peru FTA.

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Fair Trade, Not Free Trade: Stop the Peru FTA

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I am writing to urge you to vote no on the Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA)when it comes before Congress for a vote.

Once again, the U.S. Trade Representative has used the same NAFTA/CAFTA cookie cutter model that is unacceptable to the Teamsters Union and workers everywhere.

Like CAFTA, the Peru FTA does not require that the core International Labor Organization (ILO) standards be enforced.

This is despite the fact that Peru's President Toledo offered to include such standards in the Peru FTA.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) unfortunately ignored his offer.

This continued insistence by the Administration to keep enforceable labor rights out of trade deals is unacceptable.

There are many deficiencies in the labor laws in Peru, making them far from being ILO compliant.

In Peru, for example, there are no legal provisions to prevent employers from interfering in union organizing, and the laws allow companies to thwart union recruitment by hiring workers temporarily and subcontracting work out. Also, according to Peru's National Institute of Statistics and Information, it was estimated that 2.3 million children between six and 17 years old were engaged in work in 2005, most of them in the informal sector.

In addition to the shortfalls in the labor chapter, as currently negotiated, national development needs and the rights of citizens and local governments will come secondary to the rights of foreign investors in this trade agreement.

Also, like CAFTA, the Peru FTA takes a big step backwards from current law -specifically our unilateral trade preference programs, including the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI).

The Teamsters are not opposed to expanding trade with Peru if the trade agreement were crafted in a way that would promote the interests of workers in the U.S. and in Peru.

In the last four years, U.S. workers have lost 3 million manufacturing jobs, many due to the failures of our trade policies. These same policies have resulted in another record-breaking trade deficit for 2005 of $725 billion.

Trade does not have to work this way.

Once again, I urge you to Vote No on the Peru FTA when it comes before the Congress.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
April 25, 2006


Background Information

In the last four years, U.S. workers have lost 3 million manufacturing jobs, many due to the failures of our trade policies.  These same policies have resulted in another record-breaking trade deficit for 2005 of $725 billion. 

Trade does not have to work this way.

The Teamsters are not opposed to expanding trade with Peru if the trade agreement were crafted in a way that would promote the interests of workers in the U.S. and in Peru. But like the Central American Free Trade Agreement, the Peru FTA does not require that the core International Labor Organization (ILO) standards be enforced.

These standards are an international legal framework on social standards that ensure a level playing field in the global economy, the ILO says. “It helps governments and employers to avoid the temptation of lowering labor standards in the belief that this could give them a greater comparative advantage in international trade. In the long run such practices do not benefit anyone.

“Lowering labor standards can encourage the spread of low-wage, low-skill, and high-turnover industries and prevent a country from developing more stable high-skilled employment, while at the same time making it more difficult for trading partners to develop their economies upwards,” the ILO says.

The Peru FTA only requires the country to enforce its own labor laws, no matter how weak those labor laws are.

In Peru there is a system of fixed-term temporary labor contracts and subcontracting, which has led to Peruvian employers consistently violating workers’ rights and preventing workers from organizing. 

There was an opportunity to raise the bar with the Peru FTA.  Peru’s President Alejandro Toledo Manrique, offered to accept the core ILO standards in the Peru FTA. Unfortunately the U.S. Trade Representative swiftly rejected Toledo’s position and vowed not to include a commitment to ILO standards in the FTA.

This is unacceptable.   

Stand with the Teamsters, for all U.S. workers, and tell your representatives in Congress to vote NO on the Peru FTA. We as a country cannot afford to continue to see hundreds and thousands of our jobs disappear. We can do better.
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