Unionists, Greens Start "Repair America" Drive, Warn Of Perils Of "Free Trade" Pacts
Monday, February 17, 2014(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Unionists
and green groups, seeking to create well-paying
union jobs and
improve the environment, are embarking on a
“Repair America” campaign they hope
will resonate with voters concerned about low
incomes, citizens worried about
climate change and lawmakers who will respond
to pressure on both. The
campaign, discussed at the Green Jobs Good Jobs
conference in D.C. on Feb.
9-11, got its congressional kickoff with an
indoor Capitol Hill rally last week
jammed with Steelworkers, led by union
President Leo Gerard, and lawmakers
headed by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi
(D-CA). Its objective: To
convince citizens and Congress to back massive
funding for repairing and rebuilding
the creaky, crumbling U.S. infrastructure of
unsound bridges, leaky water
pipes, energy-inefficient schools, homes and
hospitals, crumbling highways and
rails split by extreme heat and cold. The
perils of so-called “free trade”
pacts, especially the pending Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) with 11 other
Pacific Rim nations, also took the stage at the
conference. Union leaders such
as Communications Workers President Larry Cohen
and AFL-CIO President Richard
Trumka joined environmentalists in warning that
the TPP would cost U.S. jobs
and harm the world’s climate, because the TPP
would let corporations challenge
federal, state and local laws and rules –
everything from local hazardous waste
ordinances to Buy America requirements – as
restraints on present or future
profits. Secret panels of trade-oriented
attorneys, not federal courts,
would hear the cases and there would be no
appeals from their rulings. - Press
Associates, Inc.