It's All About You & Me
From the Secretary-Treasurer, William Lucy
Globalization. The word sounds removed from our everyday world of providing public services. But globalization is not just about goods manufactured overseas, like American cars made in Mexico or American toys outsourced to China.
Countries in the European Union, for example, want a piece of our health care, education and water delivery systems. And with the current wave of international trade agreements, they might just get the whole pie. President Bush is pushing a new pact, the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which poses a severe threat to public services here and abroad. In addition, the Free Trade Area of the Americas would include almost every country in the Americas, making it easier for governments to ship our state and local government jobs overseas to countries that do not safeguard workers' rights. Laws that help keep our jobs within the public sector could be challenged.
UNWELCOME VISITORS. When Enron took over the public water system in Buenos Aires, Argentina, it delivered toxic water. So the Argentine government reclaimed the system. Now, in a secretive World Bank tribunal, Enron is suing Argentina for $550 million in compensation for breach of contract rather than the Argentine government suing the company!
Under the North American Free Trade Agreement, United Parcel Service is challenging the Canadian government, calling its publicly financed postal system "unfair competition." If UPS wins, any government participation in a service competing with the private sector could be challenged.
Here at home, the United States has indicated a willingness to consider full market access to higher education for other countries. If this comes to pass, foreign companies could file a World Trade Organi-zation (WTO) complaint against us for using only domestic (public) suppliers and not foreign (private) ones in higher-education support programs like student loans and campus food services. If the United States lost a secret WTO adjudication, we could have duties imposed on our goods shipped overseas.
Brothers and Sisters, there's more. Because the U.S. government signed on to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which allows access to our markets, current negotiations may expand the agreement's coverage over areas affecting public service workers, such as the regulation of construction and sanitation. The long arm of GATS could even undermine the protection of public health and safety, the control of monopolies and the safeguarding of workers' rights, the environment, and pro-fessional licensing standards. For example, what if nurses trained in the Philippines wanted to work in U.S. hospitals but did not meet state licensing requirements? Our health facilities might deny them employment. If GATS is expanded, as some are proposing, the Philip-pine government could sue the U.S. government for discrimination!
WE'RE IN THIS TOGETHER. The Bush administration has been pushing hard for anti-worker international agreements, and labor has been pushing right back. Unions, people of faith — anyone and everyone who cares about preserving our democracy and states' rights — are working together to fight unfair, anti-worker deals. We are battling this with membership education, international solidarity, corporate campaigns and political action. And we will continue to fight as long as the needs of the few are put ahead of the needs of the many.
What can you do? Union members must be educated one at a time, so spread the word. Hook up with fair-trade groups — like Jobs with Justice, United Students Against Sweatshops, the Sierra Club — in your communities. Never has the statement, "Think globally, act locally," been more true.
Right now, unions in Central America are staging protests and sit-ins to block CAFTA. By joining in this effort, we'll send a strong message to the Bush administration that says: Trade rules threatening our public services are simply unacceptable.
