skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

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.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Labor Groups Want Workers Prioritized in NAFTA Talks

play audio
Play

Monday, August 14, 2017   

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Some labor groups in Ohio and around the country are asking leaders to prioritize workers as talks begin on revising the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.

Trade officials from the U.S., Canada and Mexico will sit down Wednesday to renegotiate the 23-year-old trade deal – the success of which is hotly disputed.

Supporters argue NAFTA quadrupled trade among the three countries, boosted American agriculture exports and lowered import prices.

But Deb Kline, director of Cleveland Jobs with Justice, says Ohio manufacturing jobs were outsourced to Mexico and industry took a hit.

"Go down to the Mahoning Valley, Youngstown and Warren and you will see the ghosts of what used to be the steel industry,” she states. “We've lost many of our auto plants and then GE. Many of the plants shut down in this area."

NAFTA resulted in the loss of an estimated 680,000 manufacturing jobs in the U.S., but supporters argue the jobs have been more than made up for as NAFTA opened up foreign trade and investment for U.S. companies.

Kline says the trade deal also lowered wages and increased exploitation of Mexican and other immigrant workers.

"Workers need to be protected,” she stresses. “There need to be penalties for companies that move overseas just so that they can take advantage of other workers in other countries. It has to be about the workers and not about the bosses and the corporations."

After initially calling it "the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere," President Donald Trump is now calling for NAFTA to be modestly revised.

The White House says if negotiations do not give American workers a fair deal, then the president will give notice of the United States' intent to withdraw from the trade deal.

This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded by the George Gund Foundation.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021