Sweatfree Organizing in the Age of CAFTA
Introduction
CAFTA Labor Standards
Purchasing Standards
Sweatfree Organizing
Taking Action
Introduction
On July 28, 2005, the House of Representatives passed the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) by a 217 – 215 vote. A few days later, the President signed implementing legislation, expanding the trade rules of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic.
CAFTA should not have passed. The American public is firmly against NAFTA expansion, fearing increased economic insecurity and inequality, the weakening of environmental and public health standards, and the loss of democracy. Representatives who were “flat-out” opposed to CAFTA just a day before the vote changed their votes at the last moment, did not vote at all, or voted against CAFTA with a “defective” voting card that did not register. The Bush Administration lobbied intensively, making deals and promises to push through a trade model that expands markets for the largest of corporations no matter the cost to workers, small farmers, small businesses, and communities across the region. According to a Republican who voted against CAFTA, the vote-buying price tag may end up being $50 billion or more.
As sweatfree activists we can demand that our state and local governments stand for justice and worker dignity when our federal government only does the bidding of the large corporations. We can make sure that our state representatives and city councilors listen to the people when many of our federal legislators do not. Community by community, state by state, we can build an edifice of worker justice on a foundation of sweatfree policies that uphold labor standards that should have been in CAFTA.
CAFTA Labor Standards
Export processing zones, where women fifteen to twenty-five years old provide cheap labor under poor conditions, are already prevalent throughout Central America. Widely acknowledged human rights abuses in these zones include dangerous health and safety conditions, management hostility toward union organizing, excessive working hours, and below-subsistence wages. Human rights monitors such as the International Labor Organization, Human Rights Watch and, even, the U.S. State Department have recognized that labor law enforcement in many Central American countries is inadequate.
CAFTA will perpetuate sweatshop conditions in the export processing zones by allowing worker rights violations with impunity. CAFTA merely calls on participating countries to “strive to ensure” that they adhere to International Labor Organization core standards (such as freedom of association), and also suggests that countries “strive to ensure” they do not weaken their existing labor laws in order to attract investment. If a country violated CAFTA’s commercial provisions, such as the intellectual property rights rules, it could face trade sanctions. But even if a country persistently refused to enforce its own labor laws it would only face fines, capped at $15 million annually as long as the violations continue. Because tariff benefits can only be suspended if a country fails to pay a fine, not because it fails to address a violation, there is no way to compel remediation. A country can choose to pay a fine indefinitely and enjoy CAFTA's benefits while ignoring its own labor laws. The fines would be given back to the violating country “for appropriate labor … initiatives, including efforts to improve or enhance labor … law enforcement.” However, CAFTA does not prohibit a violating party from simultaneously redirecting existing funds away from labor law enforcement. Thus the net consequences of labor law violations could be zero.
CAFTA is a step back from existing trade related labor protections in the region. The General System of Preferences and the Caribbean Basin Initiative directly condition market access on respect for International Labor Organization core standards. The credible threat of reduced trade benefits is responsible for most significant labor reforms in Central America over the last two decades. CAFTA undermines one of the few proven effective means of raising the bar for workers in the Americas.
Government Purchasing Standards
In the absence of labor standards enforceable through trade sanctions, government sweatfree purchasing rules is an increasingly valuable tool for compelling respect for worker rights. However, CAFTA limits governments’ prerogative to craft purchasing policy according to the values and priorities of the people in order to open lucrative government procurement markets to transnational corporations. The government purchasing rules in CAFTA require governments to:
• Give at least as good deals to foreign companies (from CAFTA signatories) as to domestic ones, even if a local government wants to promote local business for the sake of economic development.
• Treat companies from every CAFTA country the same no matter the countries’ human rights records.
• Limit supplier qualifications to their legal, financial, and technical ability to fulfill the contract,” while excluding conditions relating to the treatment of workers, such as wages and working condition standards.
• Confine technical product requirements to factors influencing the performance of the product, rather than factors pertaining to the method of production, such as organic materials or environmentally responsible production process expectations.
In short, under CAFTA governments should treat like goods in a like manner, no matter who made them or in what conditions. Purchasing decisions should be based on cost and performance, not sweatfree criteria or other conditions of importance to communities.
Do the trade rules on government purchasing bind state and local governments?
As a general principle, sub-national governments (such as states) are only covered in the procurement deals if they voluntarily offer their government procurement markets in particular trade agreements. Thus far, the procurement rules in trade agreements do not apply to U.S. cities, school districts, counties, or smaller public entities. (By contrast, the Central America Free Trade Agreement’s government procurement rules do cover Central American cities and other public institutions.) NAFTA’s Chapter on Government Procurement only applies to federal government entities. The World Trade Organization’s Government Procurement Agreement covers twenty-six mostly wealthy countries, and does not apply to production taking place in most developing countries. Thirty-seven states have committed to the rules of this WTO agreement, and twenty-one states are now bound by the government procurement rules of CAFTA. Some states are also bound by government procurement rules in bilateral trade agreements, including agreements with Chile, Singapore, and Australia. The procurement thresholds in these trade agreements are generally high, excluding all but the most lucrative contracts. CAFTA’s government purchasing rules only apply to contracts worth over $477,000.
If you do live in a state bound by CAFTA government purchasing rules it is important to remember that no trade agreement automatically invalidates a state or local law. A sub-national sweatfree procurement measure can only be overturned if it is successfully challenged as a “non-tariff barrier to trade” in a WTO or regional trade tribunal. This is a long and complicated process and potentially costly – in political terms – for the challenging party. Imagine if a foreign country or corporation tried to tell your state that it would have to accept sweatshop products despite the democratically adopted sweatfree purchasing law. Can you hear the outcry of dismay from all corners of your community and from members of all political stripes concerned not just with human rights and worker abuse, but also with this threat to local sovereignty? Such a challenge could, ironically, galvanize a much stronger movement against unfair and undemocratic trade rules.
Sweatfree Organizing
In the wake of CAFTA’s passage, sweatfree organizing is more important than ever. When our Administration and Congress will not do the bidding of the people, let’s demand that our state and local governments stand for justice and worker rights by requiring companies to adhere to fair labor standards in exchange for public contracts.
A sweatfree campaign is a fight for a positive agenda of worker justice and dignity rather than a defensive battle. Promoting a positive agenda is easier than working against a negative one. As promoter, we control the terms of the struggle. We fight in our communities where we know the political landscape and have better access to decision makers. We control the schedule of the struggle, define the phases of our campaign on our terms, and introduce legislation when we are ready to do so. As promoter we have the opportunity to create real improvements in our world; this is a proactive process which, compared to a reactive, negative fight, ultimately excites and motivates more people in a sustained struggle. As promoter we are more creative and more interesting to the media and the general public. Perhaps positive struggles are also more affirming, rewarding, and spiritually fulfilling to greater numbers of people.
When we organize for a sweatfree school, city, or state we create rules for the global economy that support workers. Unlike CAFTA, a sweatfree community holds that International Labor Organization standards are mandatory minimums, not optional; that workers should be paid living wages, not below-subsistence albeit legal minimum wages; and that workers’ right to stand up for their rights, organize unions, and bargain collectively with their employers is fundamental. A sweatfree community tells companies that wish to have access to public contracts that compliance with sweatfree standards is not optional, and that there are real consequences for failure. The more sweatfree communities we have, the more quickly we erode the legitimacy of trade deals like CAFTA. Sweatfree purchasing is the first step to sweatfree trade agreements and a sweatfree global economy.
Take Action
Here's what you can now do help create a sweatfree global economy:
• Join or help start a sweatfree campaign to make sure your school, city, or state supports worker justice. Please check out the organizing materials we have assembled for you here.
• If your state is signed on to the CAFTA or WTO government procurement rules persuade your governor or state legislature to rescind their commitment to these rules. Make sure your state does not agree to additional trade rules on government procurement, such as those in the Andean Free Trade Agreement. Contact Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch for more information.
• Find out how your legislators voted on CAFTA. Let them know you won't vote for them if they voted for CAFTA, and that your will carefully monitor their future votes on similar agreements.
