AFL-CIO president says unfair trade practices causing U.S. to lose jobs

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2007/09/08/News/343275.html

AFL-CIO president says unfair trade practices causing U.S. to lose jobs
Saturday, Sep 8, 2007

By Jason Wiest
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK - The president of the AFL-CIO said Friday that regulations must be implemented among employers globally to stop the U.S. from losing jobs.

"We know that globalization is here to stay, but it doesn't have to be called survival," John Sweeney, the head of the nation's largest federation of unions, said in a speech at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. "It doesn't work right when corporations are free to pillage the world for cheaper and cheaper labor, slave labor, child labor."

Sweeney singled out China, accusing the communist country of employing environmental practices that are globally unsustainable, routinely violating workers' rights, and manipulating its currency.

"We need new global rules to prevent that," he said. "It affects us all when a major economy pulls down standards and we need to use the enormous bargaining power of U.S. trade to prevent that."

Leveling the global playing field was one task Sweeney said must be done to "make America work for working people."

In America, Sweeney said, the gap between classes must be narrowed, workers must be allowed to join unions free from intimidation and health care must be provided for all Americans.

FULL story at link.