Here is a very easy way to write them, the AFL-CIO action link (way to send an email) copied below:
I just read that the stinker CAFTA, yet another outsourcing trade agreement, might pass. I'm reposting the AFL-CIO newsletter, which I think gives at least some things to think about but also an easy way to email your representatives to vote no.
Dear Working Families e-Activist,
Tell Congress: Stop CAFTA—
Save Jobs
Act now--send these 10 reasons on why CAFTA is bad for America's workers to Congress and urge them to
stop CAFTA.
Thanks for all that you do for working families.
If we’re going to save jobs and stop CAFTA—the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement—we’ve got to act now. President George W. Bush has moved CAFTA (also called “NAFTA’s twin brother) to Congress, and our senators and representatives need to hear from us now.
There probably are 1,000 good reasons to stop CAFTA. They all boil down to jobs. Let’s look at 10 good ones.
1. CAFTA would give new protections to U.S. multinational companies for operating outside the country. Like companies need more incentives to move jobs!
2. At the same time, CAFTA would reduce protections for workers—here and in Central America.
3. That one-two punch combines to make goods produced in other countries cheaper and less risky for the makers—and to make it impossible for U.S. manufacturers to compete.
4. When we can’t compete with foreign goods, we import more and our trade deficit soars. It happened with NAFTA. Our trade deficit with NAFTA countries is 12 times bigger than before NAFTA—it shot up from $9 billion in 1993 to $111 billion last year.
5. When imports and our trade deficit grow, we lose jobs. We lost an estimated 900,000 net jobs to NAFTA.
Heard enough? Click the following link to tell your members of Congress to stop CAFTA, or keep reading.
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/No_CAFTA6. You can’t believe what the trade-at-all-costs folks are saying about CAFTA. When you hear claims that CAFTA will create U.S. jobs and improve living standards in Central America, remember this: That’s what they said about NAFTA.
7. CAFTA would hurt, not help, Central American and Dominican workers. Look at NAFTA’s legacy: Displaced Mexican subsistence farmers were turned into unemployed masses, far, far outnumbering the few jobs created. Workers who find jobs manufacturing goods for export are out of luck. Overall, real wages for Mexican workers actually have fallen since NAFTA.
8. CAFTA would hurt workers who don’t lose jobs, too. It would make it easier for employers to fight workers struggling to form unions by threatening to close down. NAFTA did: By the late 1990s, employers threatened to shut down if workers formed a union in 51 percent of union representation election campaigns—and 71 percent in manufacturing. That’s a whopping increase from the 29 percent in the mid-1980s.
9. In addition—increased trade lowers wages for low-skilled U.S. workers. Real wages for most U.S. men actually have fallen since NAFTA.
10. U.S. workers already are hurting from anti-worker trade policies. Now is the time to do trade the right way—by rewarding work and respecting workers here and in other countries.
Please take a minute now to share this information with your members of Congress and urge them to stop CAFTA.
Thank you for working for working families—and for good jobs.
In solidarity,
Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO
June 23, 2005
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