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To
Preserve Your Right To Representation
UAW Local 571 leadership joined with the
Southeastern Connecticut
Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO and other groups to requisition
U.S. Representative Rob Simmons to oppose Fast Track legislation in Congress.
In a rally on July 28,
2001 in downtown Norwich sponsored by a coalition of unions, environmentalists,
N.O.W., the Connecticut Coalition to Stop Fast Track and the FTAA, and numerous
other community organizations, Local 571 leadership (Those Connecticut residents
representing our Local were Mel, John, Bob, Wayne, and Ed, along with Bill Larkin
and spouse, and Ken Rowland and son). along with people from around
the state gathered to urge U.S. Representative Rob Simmons to oppose Fast Track
and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (an enormous extension of NAFTA).
It's not just catchy
words or politics. International trade agreements like the upcoming FTAA
will dramatically affect your life, your job, your education, the environment,
public services, health care, and your children's lives for years to come.
Congress is expected to consider giving the President authority to negotiate
Fast Track trade deals.
If Congress passes Fast
Track legislation, it will give the administration the power to decide all terms
for international trade agreements. Congress will then have 60 days or
less to bring it to the floor for a vote, and can only debate for 20 hours on
trade agreements which may run into thousands of pages! Representatives
are not allowed to offer amendments to the agreement. Domestic legislation
of similar size and scope can take years to debate and has dozens of
amendments. Fast Track propels the negotiation of trade agreements by
squashing representative (citizens') input in the democratic process of the
making of laws. What then follows?
The U.S. Constitution
gives the President exclusive authority for managing relations with foreign
sovereigns; however, it gives Congress the power to regulate commerce with
foreign nations. This is one of the many checks and balances built into
the Constitution to prevent one branch of government from having absolute
control of a vital policy area.
Fast Track destroys
this balance by delegating Congress' constitutional authority over trade policy
to the White House, thus preventing Congress from amending trade deals. Furthermore
it would allow the President not only to draft agreements, but to craft any
legislation needed to bring U.S. laws into compliance with such agreements.
Giving the President the ability to legislate without having to listen to
citizen input concentrates more power in the executive branch - a step away form
democracy. Again, what follows?
We need to slow down
NAFTA expansion and replace Fast Track with Right Track trade policies.
They might take longer, but they would help and not hurt jobs, the environment,
and democracy. A Right Tack policy would promote trade while improving labor
and environmental standards. It would allow Congress to oversee, amend,
and debate trade agreements.
Opening up debate about
trade agreements is critical to protecting our democracy from corporate rule,
and in protecting our labor, human rights, and environmental laws from so-called
"free trade". The primary reason for wanting negotiating
authority is to pass the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which would
extend NAFTA to the entire hemisphere, and is to be implemented by 2005 or
sooner. If you agree that NAFTA has been disastrous to working families,
human rights, and the environment in the three countries of the U.S., Canada,
and Mexico so far, consider how much worse it will get.
Corporations already
have an entry into trade negotiations through the U.S. Trade Representatives'
Industry Sector Advisory Committees. more than 300 business
representatives have been helping to write the rules for the Free Trade Area of
the Americas (FTAA) while civil society groups are left in the dark. And
by forcing Congress to provide a straight yes or no vote on trade deals, and by
preventing Congress from making any changes to such agreements, Fast Track puts
even more power in the hands of corporate rule-makers who know they can craft
deals that suit their agendas without worrying about any counter-influence from
public interest groups.
USTrade, the biggest
corporate lobbying group ever created, is made up of hundreds of the largest
global corporations that have offices or bases in the United States. It
also contains pre-existing business lobbying organizations, and is pumping money
into this campaign while hiring professional lobbyists to get their own way in
Congress.
The UAW is opposed to
the Fast Track legislation because it fails to require the inclusion of worker
rights and environmental protections in the core text of trade agreements, enforceable
through trade sanctions as with other commercial interests. Additionally,
it would simply give the Administration blank check to expand NAFTA to the rest
of South and Central America, thereby jeopardizing the jobs of thousands of UAW
members and other American workers.
What can you do to
preserve our right to representation and slow down the corporate
bulldozer? Tell your elected representatives to oppose the Fast Track trade
legislation. It just might do some good.
Online homepages that
offer quick ways to send your messages can be found at: www.aflcio.org
and www.uaw.org
Or you can write your
Representatives:
Hon. _____________________________
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Or you can call your
Representative by dialing the following toll free number and asking for their
office: 1-800-393-1082
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