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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Union President Says Trans-Pacific Partnership Is A Jobs Killer

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Tuesday, September 17, 2013   

SALT LAKE CITY - The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal could cause job loss in Utah and elsewhere, according to Communications Workers of America Local 7704 President Keven Ondrak. He said TPP could give U.S. companies even more incentive to send jobs overseas.

Ondrak declared that America cannot afford to lose more jobs to China and other places.

"We stop these foreign trade deals that take our jobs offshore. We must bring back all offshore work here back to the United States," he said.

The TPP includes Canada, Mexico, Japan and several other nations. A group called U.S. Business Coalition for TPP believes the trade deal will help create jobs and "... open markets for U.S. farmers, manufacturers and service providers, as well as increase U.S. exports and support and create American jobs."

Ondrak said however that another problem with TPP is that Congress is not including public comment in what he calls "secret negotiations." He said union members and all working Americans deserve to have a voice in the process.

"They shut the door on us and they have their Congressional meetings and they call for a vote through fast-track up or down," he charged. "So, they're excluding us."

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is in the later stages of negotiation.

Ondrak argued that TPP could further diminish the role of unions in America, and said organized labor has taken a big fall in the past quarter-century.

"As of today the nation is only about 9 percent unionized," he specified. "In 1987 it was upward to about 20 percent, so this is a very sad time for organized labor."

Ondrak said he hopes Congress will allow public voices to be heard as negotiations continue in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The U.S. Business Coalition for TPP website is at tppcoalition.org.




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