United Steel Workers President Blasts Obama For Trade Promotion Authority Request

[cali]

The United Steelworkers (USW) has released the following statement from USW International President Leo W. Gerard in response to President Obama’s request for new fast-track trade authority and Sen. Orrin Hatch’s call for limited Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA):

“Unfortunately, the President and Congress appear poised to renew the outdated, failed trade policies of the past by discussing the provision of fast-track trade negotiating authority without vital updates and reforms. Why would we want to adopt the old model when it has so clearly resulted in rising trade deficits, rising unemployment, rising income inequality and rising misfortune for so many? As we seek to restore long-term growth in our economy, the last thing we should do is undermine our prospects with outdated trade policies.

“Sen. Hatch seems to think that Trade Adjustment Assistance is a ‘gift’ to labor that will mute our opposition to fast track. He should talk to the companies and workers in his state who filed dozens of requests for, and received, TAA benefits over the last years as to whether they see the program as a gift. Most of them likely would question whether, after getting kicked in the teeth by international trade, the provision of an economic Band-Aid is a gift or something they are due because of failed government policies which cost them their jobs.

“America’s competitiveness has been undermined by a lack of investment in skills, training, infrastructure, technology and manufacturing. Our ability to access new markets has been thwarted by foreign unfair trade practices such as currency manipulation, subsidies and predatory policies of state-owned enterprises. Providing the tools our workers and companies need to compete and addressing the harm done by unfair trade are not gifts; they’re simple common sense.”

The USW represents 850,000 members in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. It is the largest private-sector union in North America, representing workers in a range of industries including metals, mining, rubber, paper and forestry, oil, health care, security, hotels, municipal governments and agencies.

http://www.chestertontribune.com/Business/usw_president_leo_gerard_blasts.htm

[Nye Bevan]

1. AFL-CIO Executive Council Backs Keystone XL Pipeline

ORLANDO — The A.F.L.-C.I.O., the nation’s largest federation of unions, has issued an apparent endorsement of the Keystone XL oil pipeline — apparent because it enthusiastically called for expanding the nation’s pipeline system, without specifically mentioning Keystone.

And while some union leaders said the federation’s stance stopped short of an official endorsement, the nation’s building trades unions — eager for the thousands of jobs the pipeline would create — issued a statement saying the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s stance was a clear endorsement of the Keystone pipeline.

The labor federation’s embrace of the pipeline, even with some ambiguity, will give President Obama some political cover as he weighs whether to approve the pipeline, which would carry more than 700,000 barrels of Canadian crude oil each day to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico.

But the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s move is likely to strain the alliances that organized labor has sought to build with the environmental groups that are battling the pipeline.

See more at: http://portside.org/2013-02-28/afl-cio-executive-council-backs-keystone-xl-pipeline#sthash.cJZHdCCU.dpuf

[cali]

3. uh, that has nothing to do with either the TPP or TPA

absolutely nothing at all. Care to actually comment on the TPA and TPP?

[djean111]

4. Silly - this is how it goes -

You must be in total lockstep with everything proposed by a Dem president. Or you are not a true Dem.
And this thing of saying if you agree with even one thing that Limbaugh or Paul or whoever is for, then you automatically agree with everything they say, and so your opinion is brushed aside. Classic misdirection and deflection. May as well be told Look! There's a kitty!

The TPP stinks. The secrecy about the TPP stinks. The fast tracking of the TPP stinks.

And bad enough that I will see a smoothly smiling president tell us how fabulous it is - I will not vote for ANY Dem who supports it. Supports it, not just votes for it.
I'd rather get knifed in the front than in the back.

[mick063]

2. I am a dues paying member of the Steelworkers

I endorse every word of our union leadership.

On another note, my profession has nothing to do with steel production.

[Lee-Lee]

5. Obama and the rest of the DNC don't care

They know come election time they have the votes, they have the cash.

I am a huge supporter of organized labor, and I hate the way the party treats unions as a sure thing for support. So they can throw a few kind words out, while on big issues repeatedly stabbing workers in the back, and know they will still support them.

But the only alternative is worse, so why do you do?

[KoKo]

6. Recommend!