A boisterous crowd of workers, politicians, and labor and community activists protested Saturday against a proposed free-trade pact that they likened to a vacuum sucking away jobs from U.S. workers.
Critics of the Free Trade Area of the Americas said the impact of the pact already is being felt on the West Side at the Brach's candy plant, which has been on a gradual shutdown since 2001 and will close for good by year's end, wiping out 1,100 union jobs.
They said the FTAA -- which in effect extends the North American Free Trade Agreement to 34 countries in North, Central and South America -- encourages American companies to relocate labor overseas. President Bush has said the pact will help strengthen some countries' democracies.
Brach's is transferring production to Argentina and Chattanooga, Tenn.
"You know what you're looking at? A cemetery!" Timothy Leahy, secretary-treasurer of the Chicago Federation of Labor, screamed to hundreds in a vacant lot across from Brach's at 401 N. Cicero. "And in that cemetery are headstones that say, 'Here was a good union job.' "
Others at the rally, organized by Chicago Jobs for Justice, included Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, Secretary of State Jesse White and U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.). Some activists will travel on to Miami, where the pact will be the subject of a meeting this month.
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