San Diego Carpenters Get a Sneak Preview

San Diego Carpenters Get a Sneak Preview of the...
Mobility of Labor in the New Global Economy
by Alan Wasdahl

San Diego - Most of the construction industry nationwide is in a slump, but the local economy in San Diego has somehow resisted this downturn.
Because of the strength of our local economy, numerous Canadian building contractors have been coming to San Diego and bidding and getting construction contracts.
Foreign owned companies contracting work in the U.S. and using local workers is not a new thing. But what is new and newsworthy is that these contractors are now bringing much of their workforce with them, down from Canada. As yet, no news of this, or its implications, has made it to the mainstream media.
Canadian companies - along with their Canadian workforce - are currently performing work here in the U.S. This is done as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a three-way trade agreement involving the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Most noteworthy, is that the provisions in NAFTA that entitle Canada to do this must, logically, also entitle Mexico to do the same thing.
In free-trade language, the term that applies to these new migrant workers in the global economy is "Mobility of Labor."
While there are no indications, thus far, of construction companies from Mexico performing work in the U.S. with Mexican workers -- the plan for this has been in the works for quite some time.
While President Bush actively pushes for free trade, it is not likely he will ever acknowledge to the American People their hidden plan of open borders for labor.
Not nearly as closed-mouthed about his intentions as is our own government in this matter, President Fox of Mexico has been vigorously pushing to have an open borders policy with the U.S. (However for obvious reasons, Fox is not nearly as enthusiastic when it comes to opening Mexico's border to the south.)
If need be, President Fox can force the issue of allowing Mexican companies and their workers access to the United States by making an appeal to the world trade court of the World Trade Organization (WTO). (Afterall, if "free-trade" applies equally to everyone, certainly Mexico is entitled to the same treatment as Canada.)
FROM A
CARPENTER'S VIEWPOINT
While it could be argued that Canadian wages are much on an even par with U.S. wages (and, therefore, not much of a threat) -- certainly this is not the case with Mexico.
The logical question that should follow is, what provisions exist in the NAFTA agreement to control what contractors from Mexico would have to pay their workers while performing work in the U.S.? Would they be required to pay in dollars and observe the U.S. minimum wage laws -- or would they be exempt? Could they even be paid in pesos? In the future this may become a moot point, as many free-traders have bandied about the idea of a new currency for all of the Americas- from the Yukon to the Yucatan, right down to the tip of South America. In time, this currency will likely replace the currency of individual nations as is currently being done in Europe with the Euro.
The bottom line is that NAFTA was not designed to strengthen our own national and local economies, or the fiber of our local communities. In fact, it explicitly does otherwise. Trade agreements such as these expressly forbids the making of any local labor standards, environment, human rights, or issues of social justice, as binding conditions for its trade policies.
Despite the already dismal record of failed free trade policies and the wide spread exportation of U.S. jobs and entire U.S. industries, NAFTA has just been expanded with the recent approval by Congress of CAFTA. Their plan, ultimately, to include some thirty-five countries throughout Central and South America.
The Administration in Washington intends to deliver us headlong into the New Global Economy of open borders, where the contractors of those countries whose workers are the most economically disadvantaged will be most likely to underbid our local contractors and displace the local workforce. The end result will be to pit one group of workers against another, on a worldwide basis -- with little or no possible benefit of tax dollars returning to benefit local communities.
WHAT NOW?
I believe that most people of the Americas - whether they are from Canada, the U.S., Mexico or even further South - are not quite prepared to embrace an open borders society for the entire hemisphere — one whose design is motivated, solely, by global corporate greed and the interests of the World Trade Organization.
Instead, all of these diverse people from many lands and cultures are beginning to realize that their people and their countries are best served by further strengthening the self-sufficiency and independence of their own economies. Many individuals and groups throughout the world are uniting in opposition to the "New World Order" and its trade policies. Can we as Carpenters afford to do any less?
Can we afford to ignore the threat that these trade policies make to our contracts and jobs?
What can the Carpenters --its leadership and membership-- do to meet this challenge?