Labor & Employment Law

House Leaders Block Trade Adjustment Assistance

By James Parks

The House leadership continues to show its ?blatant lack of concern for American workers who have lost their jobs because of unfair trade deals,? AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said today. In the latest bold move against working people, House leaders abruptly refused to schedule a vote yesterday on extending expiring Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) programs.

TAA programs, which enjoyed bipartisan support in the past, provide aid and training to workers who lose their jobs or see their hours or wages reduced due to unfair trade deals and increased imports.

Take action now. Click here to send a letter telling House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) that it’s inexcusable our leaders keep promoting policies to encourage outsourcing. Doing nothing for the victims of these policies is totally unacceptable.

?This is just more of the same old politics that voters don?t want,? Trumka said.

First it was blocking unemployment benefits, now it?s fighting TAA programs for workers whose jobs have been outsourced. Apparently the Republican leadership thinks that workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own due to trade deals are living too high on the hog. Instead of working to solve our economic problems, these leaders are determined to pay back corporate CEOs who are offshoring jobs, cutting wages and giving themselves bonuses. 

Click here to read Trumka?s full statement.

The Hill news service reports the House leadership backed off setting a vote on the extension after the Republican Study Committee said the bill would cost $620 million for the remainder of 2011 and $6.5 billion over 10 years and that money would be better spent on deficit reduction. Other reports say the Republicans are holding the TAA extension hostage until they get a commitment from the Obama administration to send three pending trade deals?with Korea, Panama and Colombia?to Congress.

“TAA has been a good-faith effort for nearly 50 years to assist workers who have lost their jobs through trade and globalization,” House Ways and Means ranking member Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) said.  

Tens of thousands of displaced workers in our country will be affected, and I strenuously urge my Republican colleagues not to let this vital program lapse.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on February 09, 2011 (boomark / email).