AFL – CIO


We need jobs. Not unfair trade agreements.

Millions of people who are ready, willing and able to work are
unemployed or underemployed. But instead of focusing on job creation,
Congress is getting ready to take up unfair, job-offshoring trade deals.

With more than 25 million people desperately searching for full-time
jobs, the last thing our leaders should focus on is these unfair trade
deals. It’s the wrong thing to do, and it’s a huge distraction from our
jobs crisis.

Tell Congress: Get moving on jobs, and drop these unfair trade deals. Then, be ready to join our national call-in day this Tuesday. With your help, we’ll make our voices heard by flooding Congress with calls and messages.

Here’s why the three pending trade agreements are a bad deal for working families:

  • The Korea agreement is the biggest trade deal since NAFTA. It would displace an estimated 159,000 net U.S. jobs, mostly in manufacturing.
  • Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world for trade unionists.
    So how can we reward it with a free trade agreement? In 2010, 51 trade
    unionists were assassinated in Colombia—more than in the rest of the
    world combined. So far in 2011, another 22 have been killed, despite
    Colombia’s heralded “Labor Action Plan.” Would we reward a country where
    51 CEOs were killed last year?
  • And Panama, with a history of failing to protect workers’ rights, is known as a tax haven for money launderers and tax dodgers.

Past
trade deals like NAFTA have been miserable failures for working
people—and these new deals follow in NAFTA’s footsteps. Working people
need to make our voices heard.

Please e-mail Congress now.
Then get ready to join our national call-in day this Tuesday. With your
help, we’ll flood Congress with calls and messages to make our voices
heard.

In Solidarity,

Richard L. Trumka

President, AFL-CIO


Don’t let Republicans Kill the Dream


by

A  60-second television ad released by Democracy for America targets Republicans for killing the American Dream and failing to create jobs. The ad, “Don’t Kill the Dream,” which will air both nationally and targeted locally, features Americans who want Republicans in Congress to stop dismantling the middle class and killing the American Dream by slashing vital programs they depend on, while simultaneously insisting on tax breaks and loopholes for corporations and millionaires.

Would you trade a redwood or an ancient Tribal burial ground for a merlot? …Corinne Ball, Change.org


A Spanish company is angling to build a new vineyard in the town of Annapolis, California. Sounds fine, right?

But the plans call for: 
Destroying 140 acres of majestic redwood forest,
Building the vineyard on top of  the ancient burial grounds of the Kashia Pomo tribe (many of whom still  live and worship in those woods), and
Harming the Gualala River, home to endangered salmon and other at-risk wildlife.

California  resident Marie Casias likes wine, but she thinks this is crazy — and  people around the country are starting to agree. Marie’s  petition on Change.org calling on the California Department of Forestry  and Fire Protection and other officials to put a stop to this is  growing quickly. And we’ve jumped in to help her out by asking you to sign it too.

Sign Marie’s petition to prevent the Spanish wine company from decimating Sonoma’s redwoods.   WWW.Change.org/petitions

It’s  not often that the folks at the California Department of Forestry and  Fire Protection receive this kind of national attention. Imagine their  faces as your message, and messages from 50 states, start accumulating  in support of protecting the forest. They’ll almost certainly think  twice before approving the proposal.

Sign the petition now, then forward this email to everyone you know:

WWW.Change.org/petitions

Thanks

for being a change-maker,

– Corinne and the Change.org team