http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IA23Ae02.htmlUS unions rally against Malaysian pact
By Anil Netto
KUALA LUMPUR - United States trade unions have joined forces with their Malaysian counterparts to strongly oppose ongoing negotiations toward a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) until workers' concerns from both countries are addressed.
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and the Malaysian Trades Unions Congress (MTUC) are poised to ink a joint declaration agreed on in Kuala Lumpur last week. The declaration resembles those that US labor federations had previously signed with their union
counterparts in South Korea last June, in Central America in 2002 and in Australia in 2001.
The Kuala Lumpur declaration asserts that economic integration between the two countries must result in broadly shared benefits for working people and communities, and not simply extend and enforce corporate power and privilege. It also warns that violations to workers' rights have reached crisis levels.
The AFL-CIO is a voluntary federation of 54 national and international labor unions, representing 10 million workers in the United States. The MTUC, on the other hand, is an umbrella movement of Malaysian trade unions representing around half a million workers.
The joint declaration by the trade union movements stands in stark contrast to the floundering official FTA negotiations with Korea and Malaysia. US trade officials are struggling to wrap up their separate negotiations with both countries by March so that the drafts can be presented to Congress for approval before the expiry on June 30 of a fast-track trade promotional authority.
Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz said it was unlikely the US-Malaysia negotiations could be completed before the deadline, but Malaysia was willing to continue beyond that in any case. Negotiations have stumbled over thorny issues, such as proposed measures to give US firms access to government procurement and the service sector in Malaysia. In South Korea, the stumbling blocks are the required opening of Seoul's car, beef and pharmaceutical markets and how the US applies its anti-dumping rules.
Kuala Lumpur-based economist Subramaniam Pillay says that the US labor federation has traditionally been concerned with protecting jobs, while the MTUC is more concerned about the erosion of workers' rights. These were legitimate concerns for unions, he added. "Malaysian unions want to use this
as a leverage to strengthen workers' rights here. And the AFL-CIO may want to use it to protect workers from job losses in the United States."
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