AFL-CIO President Calls TPA a 'Rotten Process'
U.S. trade policy has “badly burned” American workers and the U.S. needs to make sweeping changes to its existing free trade agreement paradigm, said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a March 18 speech to the Peterson Institute of International Economics.…
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Trumka rejected both Trade Promotion Authority, also known as fast-track, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and said the American public shouldn’t allow secrecy in trade negotiations. “Every single thing in our trade deals should be openly discussed and subject to public oversight and the full legislative process,” said Trumka, according to an transcript. “There should be no question about that. Fast track is wrong and undemocratic, it’s a rotten process, and the American labor movement intends to kill it.” Trumka criticized the lack of currency rules and enforceable labor provisions in TPP talks.