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It’s only one job ... or is it?

The 8000 rpm disc grinder sent sparks and metal shavings in every direction, some of them ricocheting off the ventilated mask that covered Bill Anderson’s face. The exhaust fans pulled most of the dust from the air, but by the end of the day his clothing was covered with the rust-colored sediment that would not come out in the wash.

Laura good-naturedly complained about the stains on her husband’s work shirts. But his job provided a good living for their family, and she understood the pride he took in his work. The air conditioning labored to fight the heat generated from his machine. Bill felt a momentary cool patch of air touch his face. He glanced at the clock on the wall: almost 4 o’clock. He would have just enough time to get a shower in before Emily’s ballet recital. Laura would meet him at the school.

At the time clock, there was a buzz of commotion amongst the workers. In his time card slot, Anderson found the piece of paper that was causing the commotion. The company announced it was moving operations to Mexico. Bill Anderson, a good worker and devoted family man, no longer had a job.
• The 8000 rpm disc grinder sent sparks and metal shavings in every direction, most of them finding their way into 16-year old Bonita’s adolescent lungs. There are no exhaust fans to draw the bits of metal away and the only movement of heavy air came from her shallow breaths. In the 110-degree heat, her perspiration collected any shavings that didn’t find her lungs. Bonita paused for a moment to wipe the odd rust-colored perspiration from her brow. Then she quickly went back to work. Her head dropped down as she noticed el capataz, the foreman, walking towards her. She couldn’t afford to lose this job. At 58 cents an hour and fourteen hours a day, she could help her mama put some food on the table for the little ones.

It was dark as Bonita trudged the two miles home. Children played and begged in the streets, dirty diapers sagging from their bony hips. Flies hovered over their lice-infested heads like a halo.
She passed the river that flowed near her tiny village. The water that once ran clean and pure was now dirty and smelled of the chemicals dumped by the maquiladoras. She remembered how the boss man at the factory told them they were lucky to have this job and how they would be lifted up. As Bonita crawled underneath the thin blanket that covered her thin mattress, she didn’t feel very uplifted.

The unemployment line was long, but Bill waited his turn. He held his head high, but inside he felt beaten down. Jobs were scarce in his town now with so many out of work. Nobody wanted a middle-aged man when there were plenty of young people available. He thanked God every day for Laura’s job at the grocery, but her pay could not support their family and the store didn’t offer health insurance. The $850 a month health insurance premium was more money than he would receive from unemployment benefits.

Their cable television had already been disconnected. The newspapers and magazines were cancelled. It broke his heart to think about telling Emily she could no longer take ballet lessons. As Bill waited in line, he remembered a group of union guys at work talking about NAFTA a few months before. The North American Free Trade Agreement, they called it. He shook his head. He never imagined this NAFTA was anything that would touch his life.

•This man could be your father, your neighbor or your son. It could even be you. Since the passage of NAFTA in 1994, growing trade deficits have cost the U.S. workers three million jobs, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute. Now big business is pouring a lot of money into lobbying for another trade agreement, just like NAFTA, but will cover much more than the United States, Canada and Mexico. The Free Trade Area of the Americas will cover all of the Western Hemisphere, except for Cuba.

With FTAA, multinational corporations will have greater financial incentives to move jobs and expand production across all borderlines from the North Pole to the South Pole. Companies will be able to cut costs and increase profits by exploiting impoverished workers like Bonita in developing countries.
Even Bonita’s job is in jeopardy as Mexican workers are being laid off so greedy corporations can move the work to even poorer developing countries. The race to the bottom is hurting workers everywhere.

Every one of us needs to stand up and fight. The future prosperity of America depends on maintaining a strong industrial base that can support working families and communities. We have to stop FTAA from happening. It’s not just one job. It could be three million. And the first job lost could be yours. To help stop FTAA, visit: www.aflcio.org/stopFTAA.