With the recent implementation of the Mexican trucking company portion of Clinton's NAFTA bill, we are seeing the race to the bottom for wages and good jobs in the United States. The only good jobs that NAFTA could not outsource were shipping jobs, and now that is being dismantled.
With Union buster, Mark Penn working on Hillary's campaign, I have no doubt that her administration will be business as usual and her "it takes a village" will actually be "so lets make our country more like a village in the third world"
We need a president who will defend our jobs and will stand for Unions.
I believe that it is imperative that we elect the best democrat, not just any democrat.
Listen to this from Edward's campaign manager David Bonior - former house Majority leader from Michigan, and imagine what it would be like for us progressive democrats under another Clinton administration.
Part 1 3:03 in the interview
Question - What was the atmosphere like, being a democrat, taking on a Democratic President?
It is very difficult to take on the president of your own party.NAFTA was the worst legislation of his (Clinton) presidency, worst piece of legislature in the history of our country. 17 years (of NAFTA) it has been a widening of the income gap, not only in the United States, but in Canada and Mexico, millions and millions of lost jobs, a devastation of the environment with no environmental protections, no labor protections. It has been a race to the bottom, it has been devastating. That is one of the reasons I am voting for John Edwards for President, because he will fight to change the direction of the trade policies, he will fight for jobs. He will make sure that any trade policies will have strong labor and environmental standards.
My quote in Part 2 2:25 in the interview - which is in favor of allowing illegal immigrants to stay, but sealing the border.
Sealing the border, there would be a cap on the number of workers in the country and the unions would have point to define. There would no longer be an unlimited source of cheaper and cheaper labor.
This is something that could solve the border issue, but the corporatists are making out like bandits with unlimited illegal immigration lowering wages so both frontrunners have lukewarm policies on the issue. Meanwhile the Klan is having a recruiting field day in rural America playing up the race card. And old Tancredo is trumpeting this issue while ignoring the trucking issue.
We are for trade, just Smart trade, not anti trade. What good is it if we continue to trade and the benefits of that trade goes into a few pockets and it is invested out of the country in Multinationals,
(me)and then they put their headquarters in the Caymens.
Question-You are pro union, we have seen since the Reagan administration, a continuous onslaught against unions...
Unions helped build this country, the 1935 National Labor and Relations act, the Wagner act, allowed people to join unions...the steelworkers jobs ...they were like today's service jobs, they got a union, they bargained, they improved their wages, they got healthcare, safety measures, it changed the whole economic complexion of the United States it created an expanding middle class. There is no reason that can't happen today with our service jobs. What we need is another labor movement today that will help people get their justice at their workplace, you get better taxbase, better schools, better opportunity for your children. John Edwards has worked all across the country, like Hotel Rising Campaign with Danny Glover, to help raise the wages of housekeepers, hotel workers... he has worked on behalf for housekeepers, auto workers, steelworkers, teachers, nurses, he stood with a hunger strike at the University of Miami employees who were making $6.00 an hour.
My other rant on the Trucking issue:
on Unions... Why must we be so Pro-Labor?
by wade norris [Subscribe] [Edit Diary]
Tue Jul 31, 2007 at 10:50:33 AM PDT
Recently, a conservative friend of mine asked me,
"Wade, why are you so Pro-Labor?"
My question to you out there is, why aren't you so Pro-Labor?
Who else is standing up for working class people? Who else is trying to stop free trade agreements from gutting our country?
Unions have been what have made the middle class what it is in the USA. With information that the major Republican candidate, Giuliani, is a major profiteer off of a proposed NAFTA Superhighway plans
http://www.sierratimes.com/...
and after finding out that Prescott Bush nearly had Roosevelt overthrown because of his Union/labor/New Deal policies,
http://www.prisonplanet.com/...
BBC: Bush's Grandfather Planned Fascist Coup In America
New investigation sheds light on clique of powerbrokers, including Prescott Bush, who sought to overthrow U.S. government and implement Hitlerian policies
It really concerns me that we have been on a 27 year stretch of union busting presidents. And the R's are hoping to find a new "Reagan" to support - Remember him busting the FAA Union strike for better hours - That's right, bust a union that is trying to ensure safe working conditions for the people navigating your airplane...
wade norris's diary :: ::
And this is not a fringe issue anymore, Now even Republicans presidential candidates are being asked this question by the constituents in the primary states...Are the R's waking up too?
Rumors of a Superhighway
By Michael Luo
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/...
With Hillary running on the glory days of Bill who was fully responsible for the original passage of NAFTA, and who is being thrown fundraisers by Rupert (aka "My Precious")Murdoch, my concern is that we are going down the road of the least wages and least protections for our working class folks.
a Rant for you union fans...
Free trade and privatization is killing America