ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 7, 1996 TAG: 9604050019
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GERALD W. MEADOWS
THE NORTH American Free Trade Agreement has in its two years of existence failed to protect U.S. workers from the devastating effects of plant relocation and subsequent job loss, and has facilitated the destruction of the global environment.
Despite the Feb. 27 commentary, "Politics aside, NAFTA is working," by Ollie Akel, NAFTA has paved the way for corporate entities to control North America as a precursor to their controlling the world. Akel may see this as a step toward progress. But the 900 members of the International Union of Electrical Workers Local 161 in Salem, and the 140,000 members of the IUE nationally, understand how NAFTA has paved the way toward increased business profits and decreased financial stability for workers.
Prior to evaluating whether NAFTA has benefited or harmed us, we have to grapple with a serious question: Who do we define as "us"?
If "us" equates to U.S.-based business, then NAFTA is a booming success, as evidenced by the rapid relocation to Mexico and soaring stock prices and CEO salaries.
If "us" equates to U.S. workers, then NAFTA has been a failure, as evidenced by rebellion in the Chiapas region of Mexico, unimagined air and water pollution, toxic- and other hazardous-waste dumping, and 50,000 jobs lost.
Not surprisingly, those of us in labor unions identify, and are concerned about, U.S. workers and workers throughout the world. Nevertheless, we realize that business and workers have some things in common, and we decide what these things are through collective bargaining. Simultaneously, we recognize there are differences between the interests of workers and those of owners. Fundamentally, these differences are expressed in how resources, obtained as a result of our labor, are distributed.
The victims of NAFTA and corporate policies are real families and real communities. IUE Local 182 in Hickory, N.C., just last month was given notice that their work is going to Mexico. They follow other IUE members, like Local 318 in Schenectady, N.Y., and Local 676 in Athens, Tenn., whose jobs have been tossed aside in pursuit of profits - which, for these corporations, never seem to be enough. Thousands of nonunion jobs have suffered the same fate as corporations scan the globe in search of cheaper labor markets and lower environmental standards.
In 1995, NAFTA's second year, the monthly average of NAFTA-related layoffs in the United States doubled over the levels recorded in 1994. This seems to indicate the problem of job loss is getting worse, not better. The electronics industry leads the race of firms fleeing the United States to Mexico.
From the above, it is relatively clear that NAFTA has been a very destructive and painful process. In Mexico, the small farmers are driven off the land by competition from large-scale U.S. business. In the United States, many industrial workers have lost, and will continue to lose. their jobs - or, as importantly, will see their wages dramatically reduced as a result of NAFTA. Furthermore, there is good reason to believe that NAFTA, like other treaties that encourage globalization, will generate greater income inequality both between and within countries.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy of NAFTA is its impact on democracy. NAFTA threatens democracy by substituting the "market" as the principle by which economic activity will be organized. It does this by prohibiting governments from developing new public-sector productive activities and effectively limiting the power of governments to regulate private businesses.
The tragedy of all this is that there are real-world losers. Thousands of workers have been forced into unemployment lines as a result, and the economic viability of entire communities has been and will continue to be threatened. Sometimes the losers who lie in NAFTA's wake are small businesses. But at all times, workers and the communities in which they live suffer devastating effects.
Gerald Meadows of Roanoke is president of the International Union of Electrical Workers Local 161 in Salem.
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