Congress and the White House are intent on ramming through three job-killing trade agreements. That’s why you need to tell your senators and representatives to stop the South Korea, Panama and Colombia free trade agreements and get to work promoting job growth in the United States, rather than offshoring American jobs. Click here to send them a message now.

Senate Republicans who nearly worship at the feet of free trade agreements—to heck with their devastating impact on U.S. workers—boycotted an opportunity to move the most recent free trade holy trinity of South Korea, Colombia and Panama deals closer to a vote.

If China increased the value of its currency to its real level, the resulting growth in the United States could create 2.25 million new U.S. jobs, according to a new report.      

The Benefits of Revaluation, released today by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), explains that if the value of the Chinese currency, the yuan, and satellite currencies, such as those in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, were increased by 25 percent to 30 percent against the dollar, the U.S. gross domestic product would grow as much as $285.7 billion, creating up to 2.25 million U.S. jobs. Creating that many jobs would reduce the U.S. unemployment rate by at least one full percentage point.

The proposed U.S. Colombia Free Trade Agreement will only exacerbate already “critical” conditions of poverty and repression in Colombia. Further, the labor action plan that was negotiated between the United States and Colombia in April does not include provisions to verify that workers are being treated better, several Colombian trade unionists  said today.

Join the human rights advocacy group STITCH and the women of its Central America Network of Women for Social and Economic Justice on a 10-day delegation July 27 to Aug. 6, 2011, to Honduras to see firsthand the impact of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) five years later.

Until Congress acts on renewing an enhanced Trade Adjustment Assistance Act (TAA) for workers who have lost their jobs because of outsourcing, offshoring and unfair trade deals, the Obama administration will not submit three pending trade deals to Congress, the White House announced yesterday.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka issued the following statement today on the Obama administration’s intention to send a U.S.-Colombia Trade Agreement to Congress for a vote.

We are deeply disappointed that the Obama administration has signaled that it will move forward to submit the proposed U.S.-Colombia Trade Agreement to Congress for a vote in the near future.  In our view, the situation in Colombia remains unacceptably violent for trade unionists, as well as for human rights defenders and other vulnerable populations. In addition, Colombian workers face enormous and indefensible legal and practical hurdles in exercising their rights to organize unions and bargain collectively.

U.S. economic and trade policies over the past three decades have led to jobs lost offshore and a shrinking middle class, and the United States must address this economic bleed through trade policies and investment in infrastructure and manufacturing, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said today.

Speaking today to the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka spelled out a comprehensive new vision for global trade and investment policies to create a global economy that is good for working people, the middle class and democracy—both here in the United States and around the world.

This is a cross-post by David Groves at the Washington State Labor Council.

Legislation before the Washington State Legislature—pushed by multinational corporations and the notorious billionaire Koch brothers—urging Congress to pass the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) has died without a vote in the state Senate. Senate Joint Memorial 8006, sponsored by Sen. Val Stevens (R-Arlington), failed to survive Monday’s cutoff deadline for legislation to pass from its house of origin. Though it could be revived through extraordinary procedural means, it is effectively dead for the session.