The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) helped corporations outsource one million good jobs from the U.S.
The terms of this massive corporate power grab are now being renegotiated, with talks happening right now in Washington, D.C.
This could finally be our chance to replace NAFTA and end its damage — but the negotiations are happening behind closed doors with 500 corporate advisors granted special access and the public locked out.
Among the wave of progressive, pro-worker candidates elected in local elections on November 7th were several strong supporters of UE Local 150. Local 150 members in four North Carolina cities — Greensboro, Charlotte, Durham and Raleigh — hosted candidate forums, talked with their co-workers, met with candidates and participated in election turn-out work. All four cities saw their city government shift in a more worker-friendly direction.
Last Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan unveiled the misnamed “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.” As expected, this plan is a massive tax giveaway to the billionaires and corporations who fund the campaigns of politicians like Ryan. It will not cut taxes for working people, nor will it create jobs.
On Friday, UE joined a rally at the Gary-Chicago International Airport, to protest the deportation of immigrants.
“An attack on immigrants is an attack on worker rights, and the working and living conditions of all U.S. workers,” said UE Local 1177 executive board member Shelly Burke, who represented UE on the speakers’ list. “We need a halt to deportation and all other harassment of immigrants.”
“UE has always supported a foreign policy based on labor solidarity and diplomacy,” said UE General President Peter Knowlton. “We especially welcome Senator Sanders’ insistence that our country must seek to build stronger relationships between people at the grassroots level, and his drawing attention to the fact that inequality, corruption and authoritarianism are part of a single system that oppresses and exploits workers across the globe.”
UE General President Peter Knowlton and Local 506 Executive Board Member at Large Matt McCracken spoke at a press conference this morning opposing the continued offshoring of jobs by General Electric and other companies.
"Sanders' Medicare for All bill is exactly what UE members have demanded for decades: a universal, single-payer healthcare system which guarantees coverage for all people," said UE Director of Organization Gene Elk. "We are ready to mobilize our members and communities to take on the health insurance industry, Wall Street, and the politicians who represent them, and to win healthcare as a right."
UE stands in full opposition to President Trump’s decision this week to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program, and in solidarity with those taking action to resist it.
White supremacists and neo-Nazi organizers emboldened by Trump’s presidency see the Trump era as their time and Trump has done absolutely nothing to discourage them. UE condemns the attack on Charlottesville VA and promises to continue organizing in our workplaces and communities to fight racism, fascism and bigotry.
At its quarterly meeting the UE General Executive Board adopted the following statement on the Trump administration's plans to renegotiate NAFTA.
RENEGOTIATION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT (NAFTA)
United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)