Memo
To: Interested Journalists Covering TPP
From: Labor Leaders from U.S., Canada and Mexico
Date: Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Re: No Amount of Negotiations Make TPP a Good Deal for Working People
As TPP negotiators scramble in San Francisco to find common ground, North America’s working people ask them to think hard about what they are scrambling to save. So far, the TPP appears to:
- Cede auto supply chain jobs to other countries both inside and outside the TPP—negotiators’ public statements indicate that they aren’t even considering a content requirement for autos and auto parts that meets the NAFTA rule, let alone exceeds it;
- Contain no enforceable rules to address currency misalignment—a tool other TPP countries can use to make their exports cheaper while crowding out North American exports;
- Give companies access to a private justice system in which they can seek taxpayer compensation for laws and rules that might affect their expected profits—an extraordinary legal right that is not only intended to promote the offshoring of jobs, but is a right explicitly denied to those seeking to vindicate labor rights and environmental protections nominally guaranteed under the deal
So far, the TPP appears to be little more than a set of rules that promote outsourcing and benefit outsourcers. We urge TPP negotiators to reject the corporate trade agenda and instead put the lives and livelihoods of North America’s working families first.
The TPP must:
Promote a solution to the deficit in decent work (according to the ILO, including freedom of association and other fundamental worker rights, social security, job stability, and social dialogue) in a sustainable way, rebuild our economies by strengthening the domestic market, increasing the purchasing power of workers, and overcome the asymmetries between our countries through equitable distribution of productive work.
Richard Trumka, President, American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
Hassan Yussuff, President, Canadian Labour Congress (CLC)
Mario González Aguilera, Co-President, Unión Nacional de Trabajadores
Agustin Rodríguez Fuentes, Co-President, Unión Nacional de Trabajadores
Francisco Hernández Juárez, Co-President, Unión Nacional de Trabajadores