March FTAA Update
From the Communication Workers of America (CWA)
Posted March 9, 2003
In this update:
AFL-CIO Resolution on FTAA
This week saw the AFL-CIO Executive Council meet in Florida, and adopting
their second resolution against the FTAA (the first was February 2001).
With the FTAA Ministerial scheduled for Miami in November, the resolution
is a clear call to action for unions, union members and partners in
other groups in the US and around the world.
The Resolution will available in full on the AFL-CIO's website when
the staff is all back in their offices. The 3 page document links the
damage of NAFTA, FTAA, WTO GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services)
and CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement) and follows with an
action plan which is excerpted below (with emphasis added):
"This fall, the AFL-CIO and our allies will ensure that trade
ministers in Miami hear the voices of popular opposition to their failed
free trade model, and we will demand progress in implementing our program
for social, political and economic development in the Americas. We will
carry this message to the public and to our elected officials beyond
Miami, to demand that the FTAA and other trade issues be debated in
the 2004 elections.
In order to build toward victories on the FTAA in Miami and beyond,
the AFL-CIO and our affiliates will do the following in our FTAA campaign:
Develop and disseminate popular materials on the FTAA and coordinate
with allies to educate union members on the FTAA in a variety of ways,
including town hall meetings, speaking tours and other local events;
Ask American union members to join the millions of others in the hemisphere
expressing their opposition to the FTAA by signing hundreds of thousands
of postcards (print and on the Internet) to be delivered at the ministerial
in Miami and encourage our allies to join the postcard campaign;
Work with our global allies and community groups in Miami to highlight
international solidarity and opposition to the FTAA at the November
ministerial and demonstrate our shared vision for a more just alternative;
Focus public scrutiny on the big corporations pushing the FTAA and
expose their attacks on worker, environmental and consumer protections
through free trade rules; and
Through the AFL-CIO issues mobilization structure, including our state
federations and central labor councils, we will work with Congress,
state and local officials and political candidates to build broad-based
political support for an alternative to the FTAA and to democratize
the debate on trade leading up to the 2004 elections."
CAFTA - Cincinnati Protests
CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Area - Costa Rica, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua with the US) talks are taking place
this week in Ohio! Scheduled for El Salvador, which has had months of
protests over the privatization of their health care system, Cincinnati
became the location based upon US Corporate Companies with interests
in both areas.
Members of Congress: SHERROD BROWN, MARCY KAPTUR, DENNIS KUCINICH
and TIM RYAN signed a statement linking the loss of millions of US jobs
since NAFTA went into effect with the expansion of NAFTA to CAFTA, and
the need to include environmental and labor provisions the new agreement.
The secrecy of the process and why the Bush administration is keeping
the American public in the dark about the CAFTA contents are also decried
in their joint statement. The statement was to be read at the demonstrations
Friday February 28, 2003 in downtown Cincinnati.
Brazilian Electricity
Brazil is now facing a situation that sounds very reminiscent of California's
Energy Crisis of 2000-2001. Having privatized the electrical distribution
system during the Cardoso administration, Brazil now is facing the defaults
of some of the multinational corporations which rushed into take over
the lucrative markets. Consumption is down, prices were initially raised
as much as 300% (an increase later rescinded), and the indebtedness
of the mostly foreign corporation is soaring. Read
more about the story:
Materials to Order
Trade Secrets: The Hidden Costs of the FTAA
"Trade Secrets: The Hidden Costs of the FTAA" is a new 16
minute video tape from the perspective of labor on the FTAA. Narrated
by Mike Farrell, it covers the NAFTA Chapter 11 cases on UPS, and Methanex'
attack on California's environmental laws banning MTBE from gasoline,
and how the FTAA will affect us. There is also a set of fact sheets
and great interactive role play on the impacts on the public and private
sectors of the FTAA.
The materials come from the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research
and Education. You can reach Producer Jeremy Blasi at (510) 642-1583,
email: blasi@uclink.berkeley.edu,
or visit http://henningcenter.berkeley.edu.
The packets, including the video and curriculum guide, cost $15 each
(shipping costs included); or $10 each for orders of 10 or more and
$7.50 each for orders of 50 or more (plus shipping - contact for cost).
Make out a check to "UC Regents" and send it to: Att: Jeremy
Blasi, UC Berkeley Labor Center, 2521 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA 94720.
Trading Democracy - Moyers videos
The issues of transparency - and NAFTA Chapter 11 are well explained
in Bill Moyers' Reports: Trading Democracy. The impact is carried further
when you remember that the same "lack of transparency" (as
in secret courts make the decisions) are included in the Chile and FTAA
agreements.
Order a copy of the video - $7 each and watch it - share the stories
of Metalclad - where $16 million was paid by Mexico after losing a case;
and the pending MTBE case in California where the claim is for $970
million against the US. This may be ordered at:
http://www.cwa-union.org/international/ftaa/bill_moyers_order.asp.
Talking Trade Order
Free copies of the publication: "CWA Talking Trade, Taking a Stand
for Justice" may be ordered on our website by clicking on the following:
http://www.cwa-union.org/international/ftaa/forms/talkingtrade.asp.
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