Open
World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
AFL-CIO Campaign to Stop the FTAA
1) Letter from OWC
Co-Coordinators
2) National
AFL-CIO's Stop the FTAA Postcard/Ballot Addressed to all Western
Hemisphere Trade Ministers and Elected Officials Meeting at the Trade
Ministerial in Miami on Nov. 20-21, 2003
3) AFL-CIO Brochure to
Stop the FTAA!
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1) Letter from OWC
Co-Coordinators
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
The national AFL-CIO has just launched a nationwide campaign to STOP the
Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
To this end, the AFL-CIO has produced an attractive, four-color
information/action brochure that includes a postcard ballot in which
working people can register their VOTE NO on the FTAA. This postcard
ballot is addressed to the Trade Ministers of the Western Hemisphere and
all our elected officials, and will be delivered by AFL-CIO
representatives to the 34 trade ministers of the hemisphere who will be
meeting in Miami on Nov. 20-21, 2003.
The national AFL-CIO is hoping to gather millions of these
postcard/ballots opposing the FTAA.
We urge you to join us in obtaining signatures on these VOTE NO ON FTAA
postcards. Fill out the coupon below, and we will mail you a stack of the
AFL-CIO campaign brochures. (We are reprinting below, for your
information, the full text of the AFL-CIO's brochure.)
If you cannot help gather signatures but would like to register your own
VOTE NO on FTAA stance, please fill out the coupon below and return it to
us as soon as possible at the OWC/SF Labor Council. [We are including the
full language of the postcard info with the endorsement coupon below.] We
will forward your vote to the AFL-CIO.
The coupon below asks if you would like to be signed up for the AFL-CIO's
STOP the FTAA activist network. Please check this box if you want to be on
this network.
We are adding one additional question to the coupon for those of you
living in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is: "Are you interested
in working with the SF Labor Council's Stop the FTAA Task Force?"
This task force will (1) gather tens of thousands of these petitions for
the Miami Ministerial meeting from unionists and activists in the SF Bay
Area, (2) build support for the Western Hemisphere Workers Conference
Against the FTAA (to be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Dec. 12-14, 2003),
and (3) help mobilize and educate working people throughout 2004 so that
together we can Stop the FTAA.
Thanks for your continued support.
In solidarity,
Ed Rosario and Alan Benjamin,
Co-coordinators,
Open World Conference Continuations Committee
SF Labor Council
********************
2) AFL-CIO's
STOP THE FTAA POSTCARD PETITION
NO MORE NAFTAs!
VOTE NOW to Stop the Free Trade Area of the Americas!
To: Trade Ministers of the Western Hemisphere and our Elected Officials
[ ] I vote NO on the Free Trade Area of the Americas. It's the wrong
choice for jobs, workers' rights, the environment and democracy. Please
support the working families of the Americas and STOP FTAA!
[ ] Please sign me up for the AFL-CIO's Stop the FTAA activist network.
[ ] Please sign me up for the Bay Area Labor Task Force to Stop the FTAA.
[ ] Please send me a packet of __ 10 brochures __ 25 brochures __ 50
brochures ___ 100 brochures for signature-gathering. I will return all
filled out postcard ballots to OWC, San Francisco Labor Council, 1188
Franklin St. #203, San Francisco, CA 94140.
NAME
ADDRESS
CITY
STATE
ZIP
UNION (if any)
LOCAL (if any)
EMAIL ADDRESS
(Note: Please fill out and return to OWC at <ilcinfo@earthlink.net>.
All postcard petitions will be sent to STOP FTAA, AFL-CIO, 815 - 16th St.,
NW, Washington, DC, 20006.)
*******************
3) AFL-CIO Brochure to
Stop the FTAA!
TIME TO CHOOSE: Good Jobs and Strong Communities, or NAFTA Times 10!
Thought NAFTA was bad for working families? Wait 'til you see the Free
Trade Area of the Americas.
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) would expand NAFTA's attacks on
jobs, workers' rights, the environment and democracy throughout the
Western Hemisphere by 2005.
The FTAA is NAFTA all over again -- but 10 times bigger. It would spread
the damage NAFTA has done in three countries to 34 countries -- some 800
million people.
The FTAA is being negotiated now behind closed doors. Congress will have
only a "yes" or "no" vote on the whole agreement.
That's why working families and other activists are coming together now to
STOP THE FTAA -- the wrong choice for working families.
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The WRONG CHOICE for Jobs
NAFTA-the North American Free Trade Agreement-has cost our country
750,000 actual and potential jobs. The FTAA would trade away even
more U.S. jobs. NAFTA has destroyed entire communities as employers
moved plants outside our country. American manufacturing-the key to the
middle class for generations of workers-is in crisis thanks to bad trade
deals.
Expect worse from the FTAA. "My daughters ask me where they will
work when they grow up, and all I can say is 'Wal-Mart, maybe.' " --
Dave Polanowski, welder, Bethlehem Steel
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The WRONG CHOICE for Democracy and Public Services
Like NAFTA, the FTAA would protect corporate profits at the expense of
decisions by our democratically elected leaders. The FTAA would threaten
our health and safety rules and increase pressure to deregulate and
privatize public services -- like health care, education and safe drinking
water -- leading to higher costs and lower quality for working families.
Even though the United States can't ensure that all Mexican trucks meet
U.S. safety standards, under NAFTA rules we must allow them to operate
within our borders.
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The WRONG CHOICE for Workers' Rights, Public Health and the Environment
The FTAA would protect corporate profits over people. Like NAFTA, the
FTAA would make it harder for governments to protect workers' rights,
public health and the environment -- even within their own countries.
FTAA negotiators have refused to include meaningful workers' rights
protections in the trade agreement. It would allow corporations to
challenge our laws in secret and demand compensation from our government
if laws protecting people interfere with profits.
A Canadian company called Methanex is demanding almost $1 billion from
the United States because California passed a law banning a harmful fuel
additive the company produces.
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The WRONG CHOICE for The WRONG CHOICE for Immigrant Workers
The FTAA would make America's unfair immigration system even more
unfair. It would give employers more freedom to exploit guest workers and
do nothing to protect immigrants' rights or provide solutions to long-term
immigration problems.
Stephanie Tabone, a nurse with the Texas Nurses Association, saw
nurses' wages in Lubbock fall from $14 an hour to $11 an hour as local
hospitals abused a temporary visa program to bring in 500 foreign nurses
at pay as low as $5 an hour.
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Make the RIGHT CHOICE for Working Families: STOP FTAA!
Big, rich businesses are lobbying hard for the FTAA. So workers'
groups and allies throughout the Americas are coming together to counter
Big Business's power and to stop the FTAA. We are proposing a better way
to trade that creates jobs and protects workers' rights, the environment
and democracy. When trade ministers of the hemisphere meet in Miami Nov.
20 and 21, they won't just hear from the business lobby. The Hemispheric
Social Alliance -- a coalition of unions and allies from the Americas --
will deliver millions of ballots and petitions opposing the FTAA
For more information, visit http://www.aflcio.org/stopftaa