Blog

Why not reopen NAFTA?

December 9, 2008

Harper went on to assure Canadians that a free trade agreement with Colombia would actually help improve worker rights in a country that annually leads the world in murders of trade union leaders. According to Harper, a labour side agreement commits Colombia to respect and enforce core international labour rights on child labour, forced labour, discrimination and freedom of association.  

With all this anxious talk about election promises, trade agreements and workers’ rights, it’s worth reviewing the actual record of the original labour side agreement that was tacked on to NAFTA shortly after president Clinton replaced George Bush senior as the new resident in the White House.

Last-minute Bush rule endangers health of working Americans

December 4, 2008

The Department of Labor is now pushing through rules that
would drag out the creation of new safety standards by requiring the gathering
of "industry-by-industry evidence" of employees' exposure to different toxic substances.
 As Mike Hall writes at the AFL-CIO NOW blog,
the rules being contemplated would, in effect, "give corporations another tool
to fight and delay safety regulations and make it more difficult for a

Caroling for Fair Trade

December 3, 2008

Tim Newman, Campaigns Assistant, International Labor Rights Forum

As the holiday season kicks in to high gear, Global Exchange is sponsoring a fun Fair Trade Holiday Caroling action.  You can check out their website to download an toolkit complete with your favorite holiday songs re-written with a fair trade twist.  They are also asking people to sign New Year's Resolutions to buy fair trade gifts for their loved ones this year. 

In Good Times and Bad, Unions offer Women Hope and Equality

December 2, 2008

And, as we continue to see the financial systems and banking giants saved, most
remedies are designed without women in mind and are ignoring the real impact,
especially on women of color in the United States. Recently, women and
poverty advocates organized “A Day of Voices: Women's Tribunal on Poverty” in New York. At that
meeting, the disparate impact of the downturn was highlighted:

Oliveira estimated that for every Wall Street job that will
be lost in coming weeks and months, three service-level employees are fired.
"There's an incredible ripple effect way beyond the specific jobs that are
counted in the financial sector," she said.

Sweatfree in the New Economy

November 25, 2008

On November 4, 2008, the prison doors of the trickle down, free-market
thinking that has captivated official U.S. economic imagination for
decades slid open a crack.  On November
5, leading media affirmed that the unfettered market does not necessarily produce
social and economic wellbeing, but may breed insecurity and risk, sweatshops
and exploitation, global warming and pollution. 
The New York Times, for example, proclaimed that Mr. Obama won the
election because of the “utter failure of government to protect its people,” observing
that government indeed has an important role in regulating the economy fairly in
order to safeguard common goods such as healthcare, education, and the

Building a Local Economy that Works for All

November 24, 2008

As the group drew up long lists of existing
community assets, it became clear that at least many parts of the vision are
quite possible and attainable; some are already in process. Already the Pioneer
Valley is home to a number of locally-owned small businesses, some with
progressively-minded owners. A Valley Alliance of Worker Cooperatives connects
worker-owned businesses with each other. The region hosts many organizations
that promote green building, alternative energy production and usage, and dozens
of successful Community-Supported Agriculture farms providing produce, dairy,
and meat to families around the region.

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