Trumka says AFL-CIO will ‘scorecard’ trade-deal votes

Despite labor’s distaste for the pending trade deals, the White House has moved aggressively on finishing them this year.

On Monday, the White House announced that Obama will meet with Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli next week to discuss the next steps for the trade deal. That follows progress made on both the Colombia and Korea deals, setting up all three agreements for likely votes on Capitol Hill this summer.

Trade associations have applauded the administration’s push on trade, seeing it as a boost for the economy as well as bolstering U.S. companies’ competitiveness across the globe. But Trumka questioned whether the trade deals will end up creating more U.S. jobs.

“Panama? Is that going to pull us out of the doldrums?” the labor leader asked.

Trumka also didn’t shy away from criticizing the trade deals with Colombia and Korea.

“Why the push? These are old Bush-era agreements that the president once said were antiquated, that they don’t meet the needs of the country, and they don’t,” Trumka said. “Even though he made some improvements in Korea, it’s still a job loser. And even though he made some improvements in Colombia, they are still not ready to enforce their laws.” 

The administration has trumpeted some unions’ support, particularly the United Auto Workers (UAW), of the Korea trade deal. But saying labor opposition to the Colombia agreement will be “exceptional,” Trumka warned packaging all three deals together in one vote, as some Republicans have suggested, could threaten UAW’s support of the Korea deal.

“They very well could if they try to lump them together. Every union in the country, in fact every union in the world opposes what has happened in Colombia. Labor leaders are being targeted for assassination,” Trumka said.