FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – July 18, 2013
Contact: Greta Bergstrom, 651.336.6722, greta@takeactionminnesota.org
District Constituents Deliver Letters Telling Kline “Fair Trade or
No Trade Deal”
CWA, TakeAction Minnesota Ask Kline to Vote No on Fast-Track
Authority for Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal
Burnsville, MN – Over sixty individuals representing local members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), along with members of TakeAction Minnesota residing in the second congressional district descended on U.S. Representative John Kline’s Burnsville office this morning to deliver constituent letters asking Kline to vote against fast-track authority for the secret Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that Congress is expected to vote on in October. Protest participants say they want “fair trade or no trade deal” and want Kline to secure a copy of the trade deal’s text and share it publicly so district residents can be informed of its impact on workers and the environment.
Mona Meyer, Minnesota State Council President for the Communications Workers of America (CWA), said the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal “will put more jobs at risk, increase the off-shoring of jobs, and drive down wages and benefits. This agreement is a race to the bottom and is an agreement for the 1% created in secret by the 1%.”
The trade deal is especially important to Minnesotans represented by U.S. Representative John Kline. According to the Economic Policy Institute, Minnesota’s second congressional district lands in the top 25 nationally for off-shoring of jobs due to the U.S. trade deficit, with close to eleven-thousand jobs destroyed since 2001.
The massive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal has been in negotiations since 2008 by the U.S. Trade Representative. Although negotiations have been done behind closed doors without public transparency, special insider privileges have been granted to over six-hundred corporate lobbyists who have had influence during the negotiations. Corporate lobbyists have been given access to some of the initial drafts while most members of Congress and the American public have been kept in the dark.
In recent weeks, CWA members have canvassed precincts within Kline’s district, gathering input and signatures on letters against the trade deal. In handing over fifty individual constituent letters to Kline’s office staff this morning, Chad Perkins, the Executive Vice-President of CWA Local 7250 said “The trade deal being negotiated behind closed doors is a bad deal for American workers of all stripes. Even self-identifying conservatives and Kline supporters in this district are against this secret trade deal. They are very upset and have a lot of questions about how this deal will affect them and their families.”
Northfield resident John Frasz and Sabrina Mauritz of Burnsville, both constituents of Kline’s as well as TakeAction Minnesota members, told Kline’s staff they were both extremely frustrated by the lack of public transparency being granted and want Kline to vote “no” on fast-track authority this fall. Frasz said he is “personally opposed” to the deal “because it will allow U.S. corporations and other multi-nationals to circumvent the laws that have been passed to protect workers and consumers. That’s wrong for our democracy.”
Kline’s staff said they did not have a copy of the text and would have to talk to legislative staff in Kline’s Washington, D.C. office to see if one could be obtained. They would not comment on Kline’s current position on the trade deal.
Although the terms of the agreement remain secret, leaked documents indicate that the agreement rewards transnational corporations at the expense of U.S. workers, and will be destructive to American jobs and wages, consumer protections as well as the environment.
Mary Fiebiger of Northfield, who works in a hospital ER helping lower-income and uninsured individuals to obtain costly life-sustaining medications, said the trade deal “and will make our government even more vulnerable to these pharmaceutical companies who already dictate our health care. It will make our health care worse as well as the health care in other countries.” The leaked U.S. proposal for an intellectual property chapter within the TPP would extend drug patents for big pharmaceutical companies, making it harder for countries to produce or obtain lower-cost generic drugs for those with HIV, tuberculosis or other life-threatening diseases.
According to the Citizens Trade Campaign, the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal would serve two primary purposes:
- Make it easier for transnational corporations to shift jobs through the world to wherever labor is cheapest and least regulated;
- Constrain governments’ ability to regulate in the public interest
TakeAction Minnesota, which helped organize the office visit along with CWA, has 4300 individual members living in Kline’s district. The organization is concerned that workers and their families will fall further behind while big corporations continue to amass profits and power at the expense of people throughout the world.
Dan Jerde, President of CWA Local 2700 and a constituent of Kline’s, told Kline’s staff that “fast-tracking has taken our jobs away not just from organized labor, but from every American working in this country.” He is “very opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership” and wants Kline to vote against it when it reaches the House floor.
Meyer and others protesting the fast-tracking want Congress, including Representative Kline, to demand that the draft text of the trade deal be released for public scrutiny. Meyer said the public doesn’t, and shouldn’t, trust “secret deals done behind closed doors.
For more information on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, please visit the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition website at www.mnfairtradecoalition.org
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TakeAction Minnesota is a statewide people’s network of individual and organizational members working collaboratively to raise the voices of Minnesotans in their own communities to advance social, racial and economic justice. The organization has offices in St. Paul and Duluth.
