Trade
Representing manufacturing, production, maintenance and sanitation workers in the baking, confectionery, tobacco and grain milling industries.
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The BCTGM offers our deepest gratitude to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal, and Senators Sherrod Brown and Ron Wyden for their tireless efforts to ensure that the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is a victory for American workers. "They truly are champions for American workers and stood strong throughout this long process as the labor movement continued to demand a truly enforceable trade agreement," reflects BCTGM International President David...

11 December, 2019

Today, the AFL-CIO endorsed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). For nearly two years, the labor movement has been at the forefront in renegotiating NAFTA. The BCTGM worked extensively with the AFL-CIO throughout this process to help secure a trade deal that benefits working people and supports good, middle-class jobs in the U.S. and Canada. For the first time, there truly will be enforceable labor standardsโ€”including a process that allows for the inspections of factories...

10 December, 2019

BCTGM International President David Durkee was among labor leaders from across the country who gathered in New Orleans last week as part of the AFL-CIOโ€™s Executive Council meeting to map out the path ahead for labor. From trade and public education to equal pay and paid leave to back pay for federal contract workers and bargaining power for all, the Executive Council discussed issues that will define working peopleโ€™s fight for economic justice in 2019...

21 March, 2019

NAFTA is being renegotiated because working people made clear that the original, failed, pro-corporate trade deal needed a rewrite to include better rules that put families and communities first. However, the USMCA is unfinished, and itโ€™s too early to say whether itโ€™s in the best interests of working people. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka released a full statement yesterday on the trade deal: "Added protections for working people and some reductions in special privileges for global companies is...

01 October, 2018

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a failure for working people across North America. It kills jobs, lowers ages and diminishes our democracy. For nearly 25 years, NAFTA has put the interests of powerful corporate CEOs ahead of environmental standards, healthy communities and regular working families across the continent. By contrast, a good trade deal would level the playing field for all workers with key provisions to: Eliminate corporate privileges like the Investor-State Dispute Settlement,...

12 February, 2018

The Mexican government has filed legislation that would substantially weaken rights for working people. In response, the AFL-CIOย filedย a complaintย alleging that Mexico is violating the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation, the NAFTA labor side deal. Mexicoโ€™s bill would lock in low wages and poor working conditions. It also would frustrate legitimate unions' efforts to negotiate together on behalf of Mexican workers, who work the longest hours for the lowest pay among all countriesย that are members of...

27 January, 2018

GOP politicians are fighting hard to pass a deficit-exploding tax bill that would kill jobs, take away health insurance, raise taxes on working families and much worse, all for a massive giveaway to powerful corporations and the rich. Our leaders should fight for working families and our communities instead. President Donald Trump and the GOP are hustling for a tax plan that would change American life in terrible ways by cutting services, killing American manufacturing, weakening...

01 December, 2017

Finally, after nearly a quarter of a century, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)ย is beingย renegotiated. And while NAFTA negotiations haveย not progressed very far, and it is too early to say whether the effort will bring a New Economic Deal to working people or simplyย more crony capitalism, there was someย fantastic, surprising, excellentย news recently. The Canadian negotiating team didย something big: They told the U.S. negotiators that U.S. laws that interfere with peopleโ€™s freedom to negotiate on the job...

21 September, 2017

by Celeste Drake, AFL-CIO Trade and Globalization Policy Specialist By now, youโ€™ve probably heard of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). You might have heard that someย businesspeopleย think itโ€™s a great deal, whileย average working familiesโ€”and those whoย stand with usโ€”think it only works if youโ€™re already at the top. If youโ€™ve been reading our blog regularly, then you know NAFTA is beingย renegotiated. That means working people like us have an opportunity toย fix it. And we laid out the...

23 August, 2017

BCTGM International President David Durkee released the following statement in response to the Senate Democratsโ€™ unveiling of the โ€œBetter Deal on Trade and Jobsโ€ economic plan. โ€œThe BCTGM commends the leadership of Senator Schumer and the Senate Democrats for crafting the โ€œBetter Dealโ€ economic blueprint for Americaโ€™s workers with trade and jobs at its core. The BCTGM has long believed that Congress needs to take bold and comprehensive action to revitalize Americaโ€™s middle class. Unfair trade agreements...

03 August, 2017

Posted by Celeste Drake on the AFL-CIO Blog The North American Free Trade Agreement is typically called a "trade deal," but in realityย itโ€™s not much about trade. Its hundreds of pages of set rules for how the United States, Mexico and Canada can run their economies. Those rules give global corporations strong rights and privilegesย but donโ€™t contain a single provision to ensure more jobs, better wages, clean air and water, affordable medicines, or any of the...

14 June, 2017

On May 1, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) sent a letter to President Donald Trump outlining a four-point plan for securing the best deal for American workers as the administration prepares to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Brown, a true friend of labor and working families, has strongly opposed unfair trade deals for many years. Brown, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over trade deals, has been in close...

02 May, 2017

Nearly 700,000: Thatโ€™s the number of high-wage manufacturing jobs sent by NAFTA to Mexico, where pay remains near the lowest in the world. On the presidential campaign trail, then-candidate Trump called NAFTA the โ€œworst trade deal.โ€ We agree. But any renegotiation must raise wages and standards for workers, not further tilt our economy to benefit the wealthy few. The labor movement's blueprint for rewriting NAFTA includes: No more private justice system for foreign investors; New powerful rules on the environment...

27 April, 2017

Read the Report (Washington, DC, March 3, 2016) โ€“ A new report released today from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) offers further data that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is fatally flawed. โ€œEPIโ€™s new report quantifies what a mistake it was to leave currency rules out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The trade deficit with TPP countries โ€“ attributable in large part to misaligned currency โ€“ cost Americaโ€™s working families 2 million jobs in 2015, more than half in...

03 March, 2016

The text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been released, and itโ€™s worse than we thought. It has many of the same provisions that gave corporations and CEOs more power over our communities and shipped jobs overseas. Watch this video to learn why TPP is not good for America's workers. https://youtu.be/yVkom0B_UjY...

19 November, 2015