URGENT! Jan. 21 Is National Labor Call-in Day
Tell Your Member of Congress NO FAST TRACK!
Call 1-855-712-8441 and Enter Your Zip Code to Connect
- Costs Jobs: Trade policies adopted under Fast Track have cost us more than 1 million jobs and contributed to the shuttering of more than 60,000 factories.
- Benefits the 1%: Fast Track ensures trade policies are made by and for multinational corporations and the wealthy, making income distribution even more unequal and making it harder to get a raise.
- Undermines Democracy: Fast Track doesn’t allow adequate public scrutiny of trade deals while they are being negotiated, and permits only a simple up-or-down vote — no amendments.
- Gives Power to Foreign Corporations That Invest in the United States: Fast-tracked trade deals almost always give mind-boggling legal rights and privileges to foreign investors — rights and privileges home-grown U.S. businesses don’t even have.
- Prevents Amendments: Fast Track doesn’t allow our representatives to amend trade deals, no matter how problematic some provisions might be.
- Permits Foreign Currency Manipulation: Current Fast Track legislation doesn’t require trade agreements to contain adequate provisions addressing currency manipulation, which economists estimate has cost up to 5 million U.S. jobs.
- Neglects Jobs: The current Fast Track legislation doesn’t include negotiating objectives on job creation, reducing the trade deficit or protecting “Buy American” policies. In fact, it promotes offshoring of jobs through “global value chains.”
- Encourages Higher Drug Prices: The current Fast Track legislation includes objectives that empower foreign drug makers to challenge drug pricing and preferences in programs like Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE — raising costs for these programs, patients and all American taxpayers. It also could delay when generics come onto the market, raising drug prices for all of us.
- Hurts the Environment: Previous trade deals negotiated under Fast Track have weakened environmental protections.
- Harms Communities: Fast-tracked trade agreements have shut factories and devastated communities—harming even those who still have jobs by forcing cutbacks in such important public services as schools, libraries, road repair, and police and fire protection.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION on January 21! Congress should not push Fast Track. Ever. It undermines our democracy and almost always ends in trade deals that benefits corporations and the rich, eliminates jobs, and cuts wages and benefits for millions of hardworking families across America.
Fire Up The Phones! Call Congress: 1-855-712-8441
(You’ll hear a recorded message from the AFL-CIO and be asked for your 5-digit zip code to connect with your elected representative.)
SAY NO TO FAST TRACK
