WHEREAS:
U.S. international trade policies increasingly support the integration of the world's economies through trade agreements such as NAFTA and GATT, and plans to extend NAFTA to other countries in the South American hemisphere; and
WHEREAS:
To the extent that these relationships among nations play a role in distributing the fruits of economic growth, the labor movement is concerned with who will benefit — the tiny number of people on the top rungs of the economic ladder, or the vast numbers of working people at the bottom and middle rungs; and
WHEREAS:
U.S. foreign and trade policy is less dedicated to the goal of raising worldwide living standards than it is to abetting multinational corporations in their search for cheap, repressed labor; and
WHEREAS:
Workers all over the world are increasingly under attack by corporate and financial interests who use the globalization of production as a lever to restrict worker rights and to lower workplace standards by pitting worker against worker; and
WHEREAS:
Market forces when left to their own devices cannot be expected to bring sustained, equitable economic growth and social progress; and
WHEREAS:
Most of the historic achievements of trade unions such as the establishment of the minimum wage, the abolition of child labor, the passing of laws dealing with health and safety and collective bargaining — are intended to temper and restrain some of the most brutal effects of the "free" market; and
WHEREAS:
NAFTA is the most recent example of that trend by providing extensive and enforceable protections for corporate and financial interests, while shunting the interests of workers to weak and unenforceable side agreements; and
WHEREAS:
The issue is not whether nations should be engaged in economic activity internationally, but how to be engaged so that trade is beneficial to workers and how such benefits are equitably distributed.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
That AFSCME will oppose any trade agreement which does not, contain basic worker rights guaranteed through enforceable sanction mechanisms; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That future negotiations over trade agreements must result in guarantees concerning freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively, by insuring that both governmental and employer interference in the legitimate rights of workers to join unions is prohibited thereby creating a climate of labor stability and not one of fear of being replaced. Prohibitions on forced labor and discrimination in employment must be included. Negotiations must also seek to carefully delineate rules and regulations to insure a safe and healthy workplace, to prevent child labor and to establish appropriate standards concerning hours of work and minimum wage levels; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That new international trade and investment agreements must make it possible for agricultural, industrial and public sector workers to receive their "just" share of increased productivity and economic expansion; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That simple accession of countries in the Southern Hemisphere to the flawed NAFTA is unacceptable and will be vigorously opposed by workers; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That the negotiations between the United States and countries of the Southern Hemisphere must take place on a bilateral basis; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:
That AFSCME support the United States efforts to have the newly created World Trade Organization take up the issue of worker rights and standards.
SUBMITTED BY:
George Popyack, International Vice President
and Director and Delegate
Virginia Diogo, President and Delegate
Council 57
California