Trade: ‘Free’ or fair?
Next round: Thai FTA fight
Getting the message out about fair trade versus “free” trade agreements is a long-fought battle for UAW members and it’s not getting any easier.
On the heels of the recent close loss of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) vote, UAW members must gear up for another round. The Thailand Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is working its way to Congress.
Forecasters warn that if the existing 25 percent tariff on Thailand exports is lifted, the United States potentially could be flooded with Thai-produced pickup trucks. This would trigger job losses, including possibly 20,000 UAW members, and cause a ripple effect in the supplier, steel and service industries.
“Honestly, I think it has already affected us,” said Rob McKenzie, president of UAW Local 879 in St. Paul, Minn. “Think about the Ford Ranger remodel. We’re working with an old model truck that they have not reconfigured because they are waiting to see what happens with the Thai trade agreement.”
Local 879’s Twin Cities Assembly plant will be one of the hardest hit facilities if the Thailand FTA passes. UAW workers there produce the Ford Ranger Regular Cab, SuperCab and 4-Door.
Thailand is the second-leading pickup manufacturer in the world. The auto industry is its biggest manufacturing industry in terms of value.
The negative effects don’t stop with production worries. Essentially any automotive manufacturer wanting to import products to the United States would use Thailand as their gateway.
Touting itself the “Detroit of Asia,” Thailand has easily overtaken Canada and Mexico in terms of production, primarily due to its low labor costs. Besides Honda, Toyota and Nissan, Mitsubishi, Isuzu, Mazda and Kia also have well-established production facilities in Thailand.
“People here in the United States aren’t benefiting from these trade agreements, and it’s a guarantee that people overseas in these Third World countries don’t see the benefit of them either,” McKenzie said. “Real wages have not grown with NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) in Mexico.”
What’s it like for Thai workers?
• The legal minimum wage in Thailand is 77 cents per hour – and even that is not rigorously enforced.
• Thais in the manufacturing sector work an average of 50 hours per week but generally are not paid overtime.
• Child labor is common, with an estimated 500,000 13- to-14-year-olds in paid employment, and 1.2 million children ages 6-14 not in school.
• Some 2 million migrant workers (many of them refugees from Burma) are often badly exploited.
• Thailand has not ratified the International Labor Organization conventions on organizing and bargaining rights in the workplace, making it more difficult for workers to improve their lot.
“We need a more level playing field. ... We need to hammer on human rights, labor rights and environmental rights,” McKenzie said. “We need to hammer on those issues because even if people don’t care about how this affects us, they care about these real human issues.”
