Now is the Time to Speak Out - Friday, February 13, 2015

Fast track will make it easier for corporations to send American jobs overseas.
After just a couple of years of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade agreement, our trade deficit with South Korea had skyrocketed by fifty percent and cost sixty thousand U.S. jobs. Read more HERE. U.S. trade deals have consistently made it easier for companies to move jobs overseas where they can abuse workers and the environment. In some of these countries, workers can be arrested and subjected to violence for simply advocating for a union. These deals could raise standards for all workers. Instead, they fail workers here and around the globe.

Fast Track forces Congress to give up its constitutional duty.
Fast Track authority forces Congress to take an up-or-down vote on massive trade deals, like the pending Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), without making any amendments or changes. Congress should not be forced to make a quick take-it-or-leave it decision on deals that can top 1,000+ pages. Instead, Congress should meet its constitutional duty to carefully review trade deals and make changes if necessary to protect and benefit American workers and consumers.

Fast Track will encourage human rights abuses.
The TPP includes countries like Brunei that abuse rights and oppress religious minorities. Single mothers can be publicly flogged and Christians persecuted. In Vietnam, child labor and slave labor are serious issues. Deals like the TPP fail to end these abuses and instead reward these countries with greater access to our markets. 

Fast Track will rush trade deals that put our health at risk.
Deals like the TPP won’t hold importers to U.S. food-safety standards. In Malaysia, a country that’s part of the TPP, contaminants and banned toxic chemicals have been found in seafood. How much will freely enter our markets?

Please join in the fight to STOP Fast Track

A Fast Track bill could be introduced before the end of February. Here’s what you can do:

• Check in with your District Rapid Response Coordinator. We’ve got targeted activity occurring throughout the country – join in!
• Call your U.S. Representatives using our Congressional Hotline, 1-877-879-8951.
• Join in an upcoming event with our partners at Citizens Trade Campaign. Check out the list HERE.

Photo: Steelworkers take action to oppose Fast Track during a recent solidarity rally in Pennsylvania.