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Criticize New Free Trade Schemes, Praise Other
InitiativesInternational Brotherhood of Teamsters
General President James P. Hoffa today commended President Clinton
for announcing a number of worker-friendly proposals in the State of
the Union address. However, Hoffa criticized the President’s call to
grant Communist China permanent Normal Trade Relations (NTR) status
and expand NAFTA for Africa and the Caribbean Basin.
"The Teamsters Union supports President Clinton on his continued
commitment to providing working Americans a real Patients’ Bill of
Rights, secure Social Security benefits, affordable prescription
drug coverage, and expanded job opportunities in the United States,"
said Hoffa. "These initiatives are good for American workers, and I
look forward to working with the President on behalf of Teamster
members."
Hoffa criticized Clinton’s call for permanent NTR for Communist
China and the expansion of NAFTA to Africa and the Caribbean Basin
on the basis that they do not provide adequate protections for
workers in the United States and abroad. Clinton is following the
sad tradition of NAFTA, which has cost the United States more than
600,000 manufacturing jobs since its enactment in 1993.
"These flawed trade schemes place profits over people," Hoffa
continued. "President Clinton says that the United States should not
tolerate child labor or a race to the bottom on environmental and
worker protections. If he truly holds these beliefs he should join
the Teamsters Union, other labor, environmental, farm, and human
rights’ activists in opposing granting Communist China - a country
renown for its abuses of worker and human rights - permanent NTR
status."
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