In the attachments;
Around the State from the Oregon Employment Department
2019 Clark County First Citizen Reception for Ed Barnes
From the AFL-CIO • The Labor Wire / March 15, 2019
Message of the Day—A Just, Inclusive and Sustainable Economy
Sending waves through Washington yesterday, the Executive Council’s most notable decision was its announcement that, “if the administration insists on a premature vote on the new NAFTA in its current form, we will have no choice but to oppose it.” Here are a few highlights from the statement:
Trade policy must be judged by whether it leads to a just, inclusive and sustainable economy....By that measure, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which has driven the outsourcing of so many good jobs, has been a catastrophic failure.
By design, NAFTA distorted power relationships in favor of global employers over workers, weakened worker bargaining power and encouraged the de-industrialization of the U.S. economy.
After a quarter-century of this race to the bottom, workers in all three NAFTA countries find it more difficult to form unions and negotiate collective bargaining agreements.
The NAFTA renegotiation requires strong labor rights provisions and strong enforcement provisions that as of today are not yet in the agreement.
The current effort by the business community to pass the new NAFTA is premature, and if it continues, we will be forced to mobilize to defeat it, just as we mobilized to kill the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
March 11, 2019 • labor history
In Solidarity,
- Bob Tackett
- Executive Secretary Treasurer
- NW Oregon Labor Council, AFL-CIO
- 9955 SE Washington St. #305
- Portland, OR 97216
- 503-235-9444 (office) 503-936-8625 (cell)
- 503-233-8259 (fax)
around_the_state_03-15-19.pdf