Trade: ‘Free’ or fair?
CAFTA vote was ‘betrayal’ all around
Ron Gettelfinger called it a betrayal to workers, farmers and ordinary citizens in the United States and Central America.
The Central American Free Trade Agreement, better known as CAFTA, passed the House by a razor-thin vote of 217-215 just after midnight July 28.
“CAFTA, like NAFTA before it, protects the profits of the pharmaceutical industry, agribusiness and other multinational companies,” UAW President Gettelfinger said. “But it offers no meaningful protection for working men and women, family farmers, consumers or the environment.”
CAFTA is patterned closely on NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement between Mexico, Canada and the United States which took effect 11 years ago, promising increased jobs, prosperity and economic growth.
It didn’t turn out that way.
The U.S. trade deficit with Canada and Mexico has exploded from $9 billion in 1993 to more than $111 billion in 2004. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs have been lost, and there is fierce pressure to lower wages and benefits for those jobs that remain.
Mexico’s workers didn’t benefit, either. The buying power of the average Mexican worker’s wage has fallen since NAFTA went into effect, so fewer good-paying jobs in Mexico are available for the growing labor force. One result is the flow of immigrants to the United States from Mexico has doubled since 1994.
With CAFTA, if jobs in Mexico are moved to Central America, then Mexico, in turn, will compete for even more jobs in the United States.
The end result: a merciless competition to see who can perform the most productive labor for the lowest possible wage.
Short of the majority needed to approve CAFTA, GOP leaders used bare-knuckled tactics to buy votes – in addition to promises of help in campaign fund raising.
“CAFTA did not win on the merits,” said Gettelfinger. “The Republican House leadership had to hold the vote open and President Bush had to twist arms and load up the energy and transportation bills with pork-barrel projects to win the narrowest possible victory.”
But the Democratic vote against CAFTA was the most unified ever against a trade agreement. Rep. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, led the effort to round up votes against the deal, along with Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland.
“Although the final outcome was disappointing, the UAW and other unions can be proud of the campaign we waged against CAFTA,” Gettelfinger said.
