Portland, OR - In response to Oregon Governor Kate Brown’s support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain has issued the following statement:
“I’m disappointed by Governor Brown’s support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Oregon’s unions continue to stand united in our opposition to the TPP, because it’s a bad deal for working people in our state. We are still reeling from the impact of previous free trade agreements. Since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement over 50,000 Oregon workers lost their jobs, and those lost jobs are certified by the Department of Labor as the direct result of free trade agreements [i].
Those 50,000 jobs aren’t abstract numbers, they’re pillars of working communities across Oregon, and many were the kind of job you could support a family on. 50,000 jobs lost is what happens when paper mills close and companies take their operations elsewhere. We need trade policies to put working people ahead and grow our economy. I don’t see that happening under the TPP, and a recent report from the International Trade Commission proves the TPP has a lot of room for improvement, especially with a dismal .15% of projected GDP growth over 15 years, as the ITC report indicates[ii].”
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[i] United States Department of Labor Trade Act Petitions [ii] https://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/pub4607.pdf