Following the presentation by the National Legislative Department, a panel discussion was held with a member of the media and Debbie Dingell, of the Democratic National Committee.

Each region broke off for lunch on their own. The Region 8 luncheon included remarks from North Carolina Representative Brad Miller. Representative Miller spoke of job losses in his district, as bad trade deals have allowed many manufactures to move their operations off shore, add to the rolls of the unemployed.

The afternoon session featured a very informative discussion by Professor Harley Shaiken of the University of California at Berkley. Professor Shaiken is the Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Berkley and has studied the effect of trade deals on both US workers and workers in foreign countries.

“There are 2050 manufacturing jobs lost in this country everyday, due to failed economic and trade polices that continue to be passed here in Washington,” Professor Shaiken stated. “I recently learned of a modern manufacturing facility that continually set standards for productivity and quality. This is a profitable facility, where the workers each day perform their duties each day at world-class rates. Recently, those workers were told their facility would be closing and moved to China. The company stated that the facility was not profitable enough, and they were being forced to make the move to increase their bottom line. This facility was not in Michigan or California, but in Mexico. These were workers who earned $1.20 an hour that were being told that they could not afford to keep them, when they could hire workers in China for the equivalent of 17 cents an hour.

NAFTA was a flawed idea from the start. The American public was told lies of how this would build markets and increase the demand for US products. The so-called experts said that everyone would benefit from the pack. However, 10 years into the deal we have sufficient data to prove what a bad idea it was. The year before NAFTA was passed saw the U.S. with a 5 billion dollar trade surplus with Mexico. In ten years, that number has turned around. Last year alone the U.S. recorded a 40 billion dollar trade deficit with Mexico. Mexico has become the world’s leading exporter of automotive components to the U.S. and the third largest exporter worldwide.

Some will tell you that exports to Mexico from the U.S. have increased since NAFTA was introduced, and this is true. But, what they don’t tell you is that two thirds of the exports to Mexico make up goods that are being assembled there then turned around and shipped back here.

So have all these jobs have been good for Mexico’s workers? In the ten years since NAFTA became a law, the living wage of the average Mexican worker has plummeted 40%. Their buy power is 60% today what it was ten years ago. There is a manufacturing facility in Tijuana, Mexico that produces memory chips for the computer industry. This is a modern facility that features production in a clean room atmosphere. If you removed the word Tijuana from the outside of the facility you think it was in Silicon Valley or maybe Michigan. However, the workers at this facility live in extreme poverty. Less than two hundred yards from the building is an area where some of the employees live. They live in huts made of shipping pallets. These same employees who manufacture world-class products in the daytime, live in shacks made of shipping crates without running water.

But what about China? What happens there pales in comparison. Wages in these third world countries reflect the lack of worker’s rights. Not only do Chinese worker’s work for less than two dollars a day, they also work with no protections. In 2001 there were 109,000 Chinese workers killed on the job. By 2002, that number had jumped to 140,000. We are told that these are acceptable numbers for progress, but I have to ask, “Who are they acceptable too?” Certainly not the workers who died.

The new global economy figures to reach 6 trillion dollars this year. Two thirds of that will be controlled by multinational corporations that do business with themselves essentially. One third of that trade will come from China, with 10% of China’s imports being sold by Wal-Mart here in the states. The days of low tech and low wages being synonymous are gone. More and more high tech jobs are ending up in low wage areas of the world. This has come as a result of trade deals that not only allow this, but also encourage it. It has to stop somewhere.

It was over 75 years ago that Henry Ford the first presented the idea of the $5 a day autoworker. He was told at the time that it would never work, because that was twice the going rate. His competitors laughed at him, and predicted bankruptcy. Ford was persistent in his idea and said that it would reduce turnover, improve productivity and quality. A year later, Ford was twice as efficient and profits had risen 20%. The pay increase didn’t bankrupt the company, but rather strengthened it.

Trade deals such as NAFTA and the current proposed FTAA are very dangerous because they are negotiated under fast track authority. This means that Congress votes on the deal as is, with no opportunity to make provisions such as worker’s rights or environmental protections. It is simply an all or none deal.

During a Congressional testimony, the speaker told the Congress that trade deals with other countries would improve markets and the U.S. economy. However, he warned, these deals must contain protections for worker’s and their rights. These deals would have to guarantee wages that would build markets in foreign countries for our goods and services. Without these protections, he stated, our workers and the workers of other countries would be at risk to exploitation. This speech was delivered by then UAW President Walther Reuther in 1959. President Reuther’s logic is still true today.
We can have trade with foreign countries but it must be fair trade. The playing field must be level for trade agreements to work. Thank you for all you do for the workers of the world,” Shaiken stated.

Following the Professor’s speech, the floor was opened for questions. Retired UAW President Owen Beiber went to the microphone and recalled how the UAW made all these same arguments to our elected officials prior to the passage of NAFTA. “When you show these same people that we were right, they only say,” What can you do about it now?” If I have a bank loan on a house at 10% that I can’t afford and the interest rate is lower, I don’t let my house go I refinance it. It is time to revisit NAFTA and make it right,” Beiber stated.