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Forced Trade & the Damaging Effects of the TPP [View all]
Forced Trade and the Damaging Effects of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
5/26/15
Michael Patrick by the defunct Maytag factory in Galesburg, Ill., last week
Senators who voted last week to Fast Track ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) call it a free trade deal, but really, it’s forced trade imposed on protesting American workers who have endured its damaging effects for decades.
Under the free trade regime, rich and powerful corporate interests have hauled in ever-higher profits as they shipped manufacturing overseas to low-wage, no-environmental-regulation countries. Meanwhile, American workers lost jobs, health benefits, income and all sense of stability.
For the past 50 years, the government provided compensation to some American workers who suffered because of trade deals. They got Trade Adjustment Assistance, a little bit of money to help them subsist and retrain after losing their jobs. Now, the wealthy beneficiaries of free trade, and the Republicans they fund, contend that senior citizens should pay the cost of Trade Adjustment Assistance. That Republicans feel it’s appropriate to cut Medicare to cover the cost of Trade Adjustment Assistance illustrates how deeply flawed American trade policy is. It is based on the philosophy that workers and the retired should suffer to facilitate the rich getting richer.
The misery that corporate-pandering free trade deals inflict on workers is both acute and lingering. It is the reason so many Democrats in the U.S. Senate last week voted against Fast Tracking the TPP. It is the reason so many Democrats in the House will oppose Fast Track.
Chad Broughton, a lecturer in public policy at the University of Chicago, chronicled the struggles of 1,600 workers thrown out of jobs by free trade a decade ago. They made Maytag refrigerators in Galesburg, Ill., until Maytag closed the plant in 2004 and moved it to Mexico. Broughton’s book, “Boom, Bust, Exodus” describes the aftermath.
In an interview with the New York Times, he refuted the contention that the low price of imported refrigerators and televisions and coffee makers offsets the costs to workers of lost jobs, benefits, pensions and futures.
“The decline in the quality of life for working-class families has not been nearly matched by the low, low prices,” he said.
... That’s what economists have found as well, among them, Josh Bivens, policy director at the Economic Policy Institute. He determined that while free trade raised the national income, it reduced the income of most workers. What that means is a small number of people benefits while the majority suffers.
When Maytag moves a refrigerator plant from Illinois to Mexico, it damages far more workers than just the ones it hands pink slips.
In Galesburg, for example, the ill-effect of 1,600 Maytag workers suddenly without paychecks surged across the community of 32,000. Businesses closed. Those workers lost their jobs. The community’s tax base shrank. The city’s median household income fell 27 percent between 1999 and 2013.
Everybody suffered. Except Maytag, of course.
This continues to occur across the country. Since NAFTA, 60,000 manufacturers closed and 5 million jobs disappeared. Communities crumbled. Corporations profited....
...The Heritage Foundation’s Terry Miller used the disdainful and pejorative word “welfare” to describe aid for workers unemployed because of free trade. Miller takes the Marie Antoinette approach. He’d say of workers thrown out of jobs because of trade, “Let ’em eat dust.”
Despite that, Ryan included Trade Adjustment Assistance in his Fast Track bill. That’s only because, he conceded, it’s “necessary to get it passed.” In other words, he needs some votes from Democrats.
He and Senate Republicans paid for part of Trade Adjustment Assistance, though, by cutting $700 million out of Medicare.
They believe none of the corporations that profit from offshoring U.S. factories should bear any of the costs to workers, families and communities. Instead, they think if a worker loses his job because of free trade, then both he and his retired, Medicare-dependent parents should suffer....
http://www.usw.org/blog/2015/forced-trade
5/26/15
Michael Patrick by the defunct Maytag factory in Galesburg, Ill., last week
Senators who voted last week to Fast Track ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) call it a free trade deal, but really, it’s forced trade imposed on protesting American workers who have endured its damaging effects for decades.
Under the free trade regime, rich and powerful corporate interests have hauled in ever-higher profits as they shipped manufacturing overseas to low-wage, no-environmental-regulation countries. Meanwhile, American workers lost jobs, health benefits, income and all sense of stability.
For the past 50 years, the government provided compensation to some American workers who suffered because of trade deals. They got Trade Adjustment Assistance, a little bit of money to help them subsist and retrain after losing their jobs. Now, the wealthy beneficiaries of free trade, and the Republicans they fund, contend that senior citizens should pay the cost of Trade Adjustment Assistance. That Republicans feel it’s appropriate to cut Medicare to cover the cost of Trade Adjustment Assistance illustrates how deeply flawed American trade policy is. It is based on the philosophy that workers and the retired should suffer to facilitate the rich getting richer.
The misery that corporate-pandering free trade deals inflict on workers is both acute and lingering. It is the reason so many Democrats in the U.S. Senate last week voted against Fast Tracking the TPP. It is the reason so many Democrats in the House will oppose Fast Track.
Chad Broughton, a lecturer in public policy at the University of Chicago, chronicled the struggles of 1,600 workers thrown out of jobs by free trade a decade ago. They made Maytag refrigerators in Galesburg, Ill., until Maytag closed the plant in 2004 and moved it to Mexico. Broughton’s book, “Boom, Bust, Exodus” describes the aftermath.
In an interview with the New York Times, he refuted the contention that the low price of imported refrigerators and televisions and coffee makers offsets the costs to workers of lost jobs, benefits, pensions and futures.
“The decline in the quality of life for working-class families has not been nearly matched by the low, low prices,” he said.
... That’s what economists have found as well, among them, Josh Bivens, policy director at the Economic Policy Institute. He determined that while free trade raised the national income, it reduced the income of most workers. What that means is a small number of people benefits while the majority suffers.
When Maytag moves a refrigerator plant from Illinois to Mexico, it damages far more workers than just the ones it hands pink slips.
In Galesburg, for example, the ill-effect of 1,600 Maytag workers suddenly without paychecks surged across the community of 32,000. Businesses closed. Those workers lost their jobs. The community’s tax base shrank. The city’s median household income fell 27 percent between 1999 and 2013.
Everybody suffered. Except Maytag, of course.
This continues to occur across the country. Since NAFTA, 60,000 manufacturers closed and 5 million jobs disappeared. Communities crumbled. Corporations profited....
...The Heritage Foundation’s Terry Miller used the disdainful and pejorative word “welfare” to describe aid for workers unemployed because of free trade. Miller takes the Marie Antoinette approach. He’d say of workers thrown out of jobs because of trade, “Let ’em eat dust.”
Despite that, Ryan included Trade Adjustment Assistance in his Fast Track bill. That’s only because, he conceded, it’s “necessary to get it passed.” In other words, he needs some votes from Democrats.
He and Senate Republicans paid for part of Trade Adjustment Assistance, though, by cutting $700 million out of Medicare.
They believe none of the corporations that profit from offshoring U.S. factories should bear any of the costs to workers, families and communities. Instead, they think if a worker loses his job because of free trade, then both he and his retired, Medicare-dependent parents should suffer....
http://www.usw.org/blog/2015/forced-trade
It looks like there are only 17 House Democrats solidly for TPA Fast Track, and 12 or so who are on the fence. The president, it appears, only needs 25-30 House Dems to cross over & vote for TPA along with his 190 house republican friends. The 12 wavering Dems are getting some serious love from the prez, lobbyists, and the New Democrats Coalition~
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/the-dozen-dems-wholl-decide-obamas-trade-deal-118380.html
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