‘No to Fast Track’ Campaign Aims at Returning ‘Lame Ducks’
The AFL-CIO and its member unions launched a unique “station domination” ad campaign aimed at stopping possible congressional action on “Fast Track” trade authority legislation in the upcoming lame-duck session of Congress.
The ads run throughout Capitol South Metro station, the main Capitol Hill stop and one of the busiest stations on Washington, D.C.’s Metro system. The ads convey the too often hidden but always dramatic stakes in trade negotiations for working people.
One ad features Marcos V., a Texas refinery worker and member of the United Steelworkers (USW). He says that the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement that could be considered under Fast Track could be:
Devastating to the oil industry and the manufacturing industry it supports by off-shoring jobs, chipping away at our wages and risking the safety and environmental protections our unions have brought us for decades. The TPP could threaten our rights to organize and collectively bargain.
Fast Track legislation shrouds trade deals in secrecy. It makes it nearly impossible for Congress to fix trade deals that harm our economy and environment. It prevents citizens from providing input to proposals while the deal is being negotiated. It makes you wonder what they're trying to hide.
Says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:
Fast Track is a misguided and undemocratic policy that advances the corporate trade agenda and bad deals like NAFTA, CAFTA and the Korea FTA. Congress must end the secrecy and create a new process to develop and implement trade, investment and economic policies that will promote good jobs, rising wages, a clean environment and a fair economy for us all. America’s workers simply can’t afford more Fast Track.
The ads are sponsored by the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, Communications Workers of America (CWA), Machinists (IAM), UAW and USW.
Find out more about the “No to Fast Track” campaign here and sign a petition to tell Congress that Fast Track legislation is undemocratic and trade deals should not be crafted behind closed doors.
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This has been reposted from the AFL-CIO.
