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Labor’s Might Seen in Failure of Trade Deal as Unions Allied to Thwart It

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Labor in the U.S. stood firm in its opposition to bills in Congress granting fast track trade authority and promoting the TPP trade agreement. The bill failed to clear the House of Representatives as labor unions lobbied hard against the legislation. For the first time public sector unions of teachers, firefighters, and other service workers actively worked with industrial labor unions. This is a result of a realization in labor unions that the decline of communities with the closing of plants reduces the demand for public sector workers, and reduces the revenues of cities leading to cuts in services for firefighters, teachers. The low wages in manufacturing with globalization, also reduces the support of factory workers for higher wages for teachers, firefighters and other public sector workers. Also adding to support for workers is the realization that the investment in infrastructure is now a higher priority, as experts say most of the gains in trade are already behind us. A general feeling that the decline in U.S. manufacturing is not good for the country, the difficulty of competing with countries which do not enforce rules for fair practice and treatment of workers, and a general sense that the lowering of wages in manufacturing is both hurting the middle class and increasing inequality, also have created support in the media.

How teachers, firefighters and service workers union joined the opposition to the TPP and granting fast track trade authority in 2015, and why

06/12/2015

Firefighters and other service workers unions actively campaigned against the trade bills in Congress for the first time in 2015. The public sector unions now see how the closing of American factories, the decline in neighborhoods near plants, affects the demand for public services and the ability of cities and municipalities to pay for the public services. The decline in wages for industrial workers creates a negative perception for the higher wages in the public sector, reducing support from struggling industrial workers. The drastic drop in factory wages with globalization and the shrinking revenues of cities as incomes decline, is leading to a realization in labor that workers are affected in many ways by seemingly unrelated developments in trade and globalization. Another development is the expert information that shows the need for investment in infrastructure in the poorer countries of Latin America, and in the U.S., which would provide significant benefits. The benefits from trade tariff reduction are now small, as most of the benefits were achieved through earlier action in trade.

Grouped Articles

Labor’s Might Seen in Failure of Trade Deal as Unions Allied to Thwart It

New York Times 06/13/2015

Washington Dysfunction, With a Twist: Democrats Desert Their President

New York Times 06/12/2015

Unions Declare Partial Victory Against Obama’s Pacific Trade Deal

Wall Street Journal 06/15/2015

Elizabeth Warren’s claim that the bottom 90 percent got ‘zero percent’ of wage growth after Reagan - The Washington Post

Washington Post 10/23/2015

McConnell warns that trade deal can’t pass Congress before 2016 elections - The Washington Post

Washington Post 12/11/2015

Trans-Pacific Trade Pact Would Lift U.S. Incomes, but Not Jobs Overall, Study Says

New York Times 01/25/2016


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