In his 2013 State of the Union Address (SOTU), President Obama announced that the U.S. would soon begin talks on a “Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership”—in other words, the U.S. will begin negotiating a “free trade agreement” (FTA) with the European Union (EU).

Heather Slavkin, a senior legal and policy adviser for the AFL-CIO Office of Investment, reports on a victory for the global union movement.

Earlier this week, the European Parliament voted by an overwhelming majority in favor of a financial speculation tax—a tiny tax on financial speculation that can raise hundreds of billions of dollars for much-needed public services. This is a huge victory for the global labor movement, which has been at the head of a major worldwide campaign to push for the tax.