Government affairs

As Congress comes back to Washington this week after its spring recess, both the House and the Senate are expected to begin consideration of Fast Track legislation.

As the issue of Fast Track begins to heat up, it’s critical that you respond and make your voice heard!

This Wednesday, April 15, NALC President Fredric Rolando will join several members of Congress as well as a number of labor and environmental leaders for a rally in Capitol Hill’s Upper Senate Park to speak out against Fast Track. (Click here to download the flier.)

The rally will begin on Wednesday at 11 a.m. Upper Senate Park is located on Constitution Avenue at New Jersey Avenue NW. If you live near Washington and have the time on Wednesday, please come and join President Rolando to make our voices heard.

Then, this Saturday, April 18, the AFL-CIO and its coalition of partners are holding a nationwide day of action. (Click here to find events in your area and check back often as more events are announced.)

Any trade deal is going to have a huge impact on America’s workers. Fast Track legislation allows power brokers to shape trade deals to their advantage and to shield the details from the public and policy experts alike. Fast Track legislation is undemocratic and almost always ends in trade deals that benefit corporations and the rich, that eliminate jobs, and that cut wages and benefits for millions of hardworking families across America. Trade deals should not be crafted behind closed doors.

Trade deals ought to lift up the standards of working people across this nation. But the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal would mean more jobs will be sent overseas. TPP gives special rights and benefits to companies that offshore investment and jobs.

Fast Track would not just allow for a quick vote on the TPP—which could include a ban on postal banking—but also on a number of other trade agreements under negotiation as well. For example, the World Trade Organization is sponsoring the negotiation of a trade in services agreement (TISA) among dozens of countries, and the U.S. government is in talks with the European Union on a Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP), which would cover our economic interaction with the EU’s 27 countries.

In both of these negotiations, the Europeans are calling for the United States to phase out the Postal Service’s monopoly on the delivery of letter mail—a policy adopted by the EU between 1992 and 2011. So in other words, allowing T-TIP and TISA to be fast-tracked could pose a direct threat to our jobs and our system of affordable universal service.

To learn more about the negative impact of Fast Track legislation on America’s working families, visit www.nofasttrack.com.