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Why not reopen NAFTA?

Harper went on to assure Canadians that a free trade agreement with Colombia would actually help improve worker rights in a country that annually leads the world in murders of trade union leaders. According to Harper, a labour side agreement commits Colombia to respect and enforce core international labour rights on child labour, forced labour, discrimination and freedom of association.  

With all this anxious talk about election promises, trade agreements and workers’ rights, it’s worth reviewing the actual record of the original labour side agreement that was tacked on to NAFTA shortly after president Clinton replaced George Bush senior as the new resident in the White House.

Last-minute Bush rule endangers health of working Americans

The Department of Labor is now pushing through rules that
would drag out the creation of new safety standards by requiring the gathering
of "industry-by-industry evidence" of employees' exposure to different toxic substances.
 As Mike Hall writes at the AFL-CIO NOW blog,
the rules being contemplated would, in effect, "give corporations another tool
to fight and delay safety regulations and make it more difficult for a

Caroling for Fair Trade

Tim Newman, Campaigns Assistant, International Labor Rights Forum

As the holiday season kicks in to high gear, Global Exchange is sponsoring a fun Fair Trade Holiday Caroling action.  You can check out their website to download an toolkit complete with your favorite holiday songs re-written with a fair trade twist.  They are also asking people to sign New Year's Resolutions to buy fair trade gifts for their loved ones this year. 

In Good Times and Bad, Unions offer Women Hope and Equality

And, as we continue to see the financial systems and banking giants saved, most
remedies are designed without women in mind and are ignoring the real impact,
especially on women of color in the United States. Recently, women and
poverty advocates organized “A Day of Voices: Women's Tribunal on Poverty” in New York. At that
meeting, the disparate impact of the downturn was highlighted:

Oliveira estimated that for every Wall Street job that will
be lost in coming weeks and months, three service-level employees are fired.
"There's an incredible ripple effect way beyond the specific jobs that are
counted in the financial sector," she said.

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