Local Steelworkers Union Leads Opposition to New Trade Deal

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A local labor union has set its sights on sinking a major new multinational free trade pact before it sets sail in the Pacific Ocean, and it has some unlikely allies across the land.

The Amalgamated Local 1165 chapter of the United Steelworkers union rallied members to Coatesville to champion the defeat of the recently-signed Trans-Pacific Partnership between the United States and Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans support the TPP, but congressional Democrats and leading presidential candidates on both sides of the aisle are against it, including Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders — and both Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz have switched from supporting to opposing either the trade agreement or its fast-tracking.

“A lot of the general public, friends, family, neighbors don’t know what the TPP entails,” USW District 10 Rapid Response Coordinator George Piasecki III said in a Daily Local News report by Lucas Rodgers.

“So we just want to get the word out there that it’s bad for the economy, bad for jobs, bad for the environment, bad for food safety. It’s a bad deal all the way around. It’s not only about labor. It’s about our communities, our families and our future.”

The trade agreement must still be ratified by each of the 12 member nations, but “House Speaker Paul Ryan recently said he did not see the votes being there for passage of the TPP in the House of Representatives,” the article noted.

If passed, Piasecki said the TPP would lift only the wages and standard of living for multinational corporations, not the general public; it is meant to “promote economic growth; support the creation and retention of jobs; enhance innovation, productivity and competitiveness; raise living standards; reduce poverty in our countries; and promote transparency, good governance, and enhanced labor and environmental protections.”

Read much more about what’s in the TPP and why local USW leaders are against it in the Daily Local News here.
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Top photo credit: 43-42-44 via photopin (license)

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