**Due to extreme cold weather, press conference will re-locate to the NYSUT Building, 1st Floor Conference Center (30 N. Union St. in Rochester, NY)**
Contact: (Big Flats) Sean McAvoy (607) 733-1111
(Rochester) John Pusloskie (585) 647-1170
Rochester, NY/ Big Flats, NY: After nearly four years of negotiations, the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade and investment negotiations are on the brink of finalization. Although government trade negotiators have spoken of the sense of urgency in order to make “needed compromises” through “fast-track” trade deals, what they rarely speak of is the urgent need to make trade policy choices that will have immediate, positive impacts on the lives of people they are supposed to be representing.
America’s workers have seen no evidence that these trade negotiations have focused on any of the critical issues we desperately need; provisions affecting the free exercise of labor rights, the conservation of natural resources, the affordability of life-saving medicines, and the extraordinary legal privileges that allow global corporations to use private courts to challenge laws and regulations they don’t like.
The Communication Workers of America Locals 1111 & 1170, the labor community, elected officials, candidates and friends of labor want to know how this policy will create good, family-supporting jobs, reverse the race to the bottom leading to wage stagnation and worker suppression. In the rush to completion, they fear that this trade policy will be devastatingly costly for both jobs for workers and business opportunities for U.S. manufacturers.
“Our 20 years of experience in trade deals, going back to the North American Free Trade Agreement, has proven that we lose far more jobs than we gain, and that our pay and benefits are pushed down with global competition as the excuse, “ said CWA President Larry Cohen. “That’s not the future we want for ourselves or our children. We must pursue economic and trade policies that are best for American workers—not multinational corporations.”
Please join officers and members of CWA Locals 1111 & 1170, labor and community allies and elected officials for a press conference to urge members of Congress to act now to stop Fast Track in its tracks:
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2014 Join Congressional Candidate for the 23rd District, Martha Robertson at The Sikorsky Plant (74 Kahler Rd. Big Flats, NY) 9:00 a.m.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2014
Join Representatives from Congresswoman Louise Slaughter’s Office (25th District) at The Valeo Plant (now the Canalside Office Park 1525-1685 Lyell Ave., Rochester, NY) 12:00 p.m.
WHY? The loud opposition of 194 Congressmembers to this is only the beginning. We’re adding our voices to this fight to say “Down with Fast Track!” Together, we’ll pry open these closed-door negotiating sessions and actually have a say in the future of our country.
This is a fight we can win.