Скачать или смотреть Workers Need an Industrial Policy Not Tariffs - Carl Rosen UE 4/15/18

April 15, 2018 GUEST SPEAKER: CARL ROSEN, PRESIDENT, UE WESTERN DIVISION

March 9, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) met in Chicago in order to reach an agreement on the collective analysis of Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs. We caught up with Carl Rosen, President of UE’s Western Division in order to find out just what the independent labor union’s positions are when it comes to the thorny decision by Trump’s trade team to place tariffs on steel and aluminum, and more recently on other goods. It’s important to note that most UE members still work in factories related to the union's traditional jurisdictions — electrical manufacturing, metalworking and plastics, so they quite understand the possible implications to workers of tariffs.

After the meeting, the UE General Executive Board issued a statement on Trump’s announcement of steel and aluminum tariffs: Workers Need an Industrial Policy Not Tariffs
According to UE, protectionist measures in a capitalist economy of global “free” trade are not adequate tools for building a sustainable US infrastructure and improving the lives of workers.

What American workers need is not partial half-measures, but a trade and industrial policy that is based on international cooperation, respect for workers’ rights, and environmental sustainability — one that raises living standards for workers across industries and across borders through investment in infrastructure, jobs and social programs.

Most troubling about the President’s executive order is his threat to Canada and Mexico that their “exemption” is conditional on the positions they take during the NAFTA negotiations. Canada has made demands in the negotiations to improve labor rights and conditions in both Mexico and the US, to level the playing field between our three nations and blunt the ability of corporations and their allies to exploit workers and communities. We are concerned that the basis of the President’s threats is to enforce the continued use of NAFTA as a tool for corporate greed and exploitation.

We are aware that many voices support Trump’s tariffs as a step in the right direction towards better trade policy. We are concerned that there is no attempt to reconcile the great divide between capital and labor—certainly no effort to build a clean energy infrastructure to create lasting high-paying jobs. And we wonder whether protecting one area above others is the right way to go, or will it only put workers in competition with each other and across borders to retain the low-wage free trade regime.

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