On the eve of a planned protest march through the streets of Miami, AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney on Wednesday rallied union members from the United States and throughout the Americas to oppose the ongoing Free Trade Area of the Americas talks.
"Our mission, very simply, is either to radically rewrite the `Bush' Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement -- or stop it cold," Sweeney said to a cheering crowd of nearly 900 at an International Workers Forum at the Gusman Center in Miami, several blocks from official events of the trade ministers meetings.
The unions object to be being excluded from official FTAA negotiations.
They want to get their message across today during a rally at Bayfront Park followed by a march. As many as 150 busloads of union members and retirees from Florida and the United States are expected.
They will carry signs that read "Good Jobs: Stop Bush's FTAA."
"Trade agreements must include at their core enforceable protections for fundamental workers' rights, human rights and the environment," said Sweeney, who heads the federation representing 13 million U.S. workers in 64 unions from airline pilots to hotel workers.
Calling it the first-ever public dialogue among workers from around the Americas, union leaders say they want to bring international workers' voices to the FTAA debate.
AFL-CIO Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson moderated a discussion of workers from five countries who talked of problems they attribute to the North American Free Trade Agreement.
NAFTA is the 10-year-old trade agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico that critics say has cost U.S. workers hundreds of thousands of jobs. They warn it foreshadows what will happen if free trade is expanded to 33 more countries.
Dave Bevard, a machinist, is losing his job at a Maytag refrigerator plant in Galesburg, Ill., that the manufacturer said it will shutter because production is cheaper in Mexico.
He said the community offered $9.5 million in incentives, and three union contracts were renegotiated to keep Maytag and prevent the loss of 1,600 jobs in a town of 34,000.
"They offered us NAFTA-TAA [Trade Adjustment Assistance] benefits, but where are we going to find a job?" Bevard said. "There are no jobs."
Francisca Acuna Hernandez, a worker at a plant in one of the maquilas in Reynosa, Mexico, said things are bad there, too. She said she was fired for union organizing. She said free trade has turned pristine agricultural areas in Mexico into industrial ones and hasn't alleviated poverty.
Allen Long, one of scores of men wearing blue United Steel Workers of America shirts, said he lost pension benefits six months short of retirement when Bethlehem Steel shut down. A 291/2-year worker in northwestern Indiana, Long said: "If it wasn't for the union, I guarantee George Bush would have exported the entire steel industry abroad."
Fred Frost, president of the South Florida AFL-CIO, said workers are concerned that free trade will lead to more job losses as companies try to keep up with foreign competition or move overseas.
But businesses such as manufacturers and exporters are pushing for the agreement, saying it will open new markets and create jobs.
Frank Vargo, vice president of the National Manufacturers Association, said it is wrong to blame NAFTA for job losses.
"The biggest loss in manufacturing jobs is because of a decline in U.S. exports, because of the overvalued dollar," Vargo said.
The manufacturers group is pushing for an ambitious FTAA, because the import taxes are higher in countries outside the United States, so an FTAA will help increase U.S. exports.
Business writer Doreen Hemlock contributed to this report.
Joan Fleischer Tamen can be reached at jtamen@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5030. Tom Stieghorst can be reached at tstieghorst@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5008.
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