The ugly image behind the free trade illusion

Yesterday, leaders in Congress reached an agreement on legislative language that gives President Obama authority to "fast track" the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a secretive free trade agreement that could cost scores of American jobs and worsen income inequality. This agreement is ironic because lawmakers have seen little of the language in the TPP, save the chapter divulged by WikiLeaks which explicitly gives corporations the right to sue states for imposing "harm on their profits" in the form of basic health and environmental regulations. 

This congressional groveling to the elite of the business community is outrageous, but very difficult to visualize. It's hard to see free trade even when it's right in front of our faces. For many of us, a typical day starts by getting dressed, eating breakfast and going to work. We put on our clothes (sewn in China) eat our breakfast (grown in Colombia) and drive our cars (manufactured in Mexico) not thinking twice about any of the aforementioned and how our unchecked consumption keeps individuals half a world away living their lives as wage-slaves.

Female garment workers in Bangladesh.

They live in nations like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Venezuela. They have little money and often fewer rights. They face dangerous conditions at work, and deadly conditions if they attempt to better themselves by organizing their places of employment. Over 15 percent of all American goods relative to GDP are imported and many come from countries where workers are not afforded nearly the same rights we retain domestically.

The Teamsters were recently given a unique and rare opportunity to get a glimpse of the other side of our shopping sprees. Estella Ramirez, the Secretary-General of SITRASACOSI, the national garment workers union in El Salvador came to IBT headquarters to give a speech on working conditions and unionization efforts in her home country. Her appearance was particularly meaningful to the Teamsters as an organization because a Teamster organizer, Gilberto Soto, had been killed in El Salvador a few years earlier. She spoke of the Salvadorean government and how corruption through bribery (by companies like Adidas) prevented any meaningful gains in human rights. She spoke of the exploitation by nefarious managers and how in some cases, they forced female workers to give up their breast milk so they could sell it on the side. One of the most inspiring moments of the evening was when she told the audience that she and her fellow workers would never give up the struggle -- no matter how tenuous the conditions or how daunting the task, they would march on in solidarity.

Estella Ramirez (second from right) and co-workers rally outside a factory.

"Buy American" isn't just a catchy political phrase or a way to boost our economy: it is a matter of life and death for the workers on the other end of the outsourced work. We can hold companies that offshore their production accountable with our wallets.

In memory of our fallen brother, Gilberto Soto

Gilberto Soto and Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa.

Teamster Gilberto Soto, the former president of Teamsters Local 11, stepped out of the house during a visit to his mother and was instantly assassinated by a trio of hitmen who were never caught. It is no coincidence that he was in the middle of an intense organizing campaign,

He died in 2004.

Not 1904 or 1934, he was murdered in 2004. This isn't ancient history.

Soto's death wasn't the result of a robbery and he wasn't some random target. He was organizing an international campaign uniting port workers across the Americas when he was shot in the back the day before his 50th birthday.

Gilberto was a good, hardworking man who believed strongly in the power of solidarity. The American Prospect tells us about his life:

When Soto arrived in the United States in 1975, he got work as a garbage collector, a waiter, a cook, and a factory worker -- nothing like his career as a bank teller in El Salvador. Finally he landed a job in a factory in which the Teamsters had a contract. He became a shop steward and then president of Local 11; he was the first Latino to head a Teamster local in New Jersey. He put himself through community college, earned a bachelor's degree, and finally became a Teamsters organizer. Soto worked with port drivers around the country as they began to organize a national network, despite enormous legal obstacles.

Gilberto Soto died because he believed workers should have the chance to be paid fairly for a day's work. He's yet another casualty of the war on workers. We want to dedicate this day, the anniversary of his death, to his memory and the memory of others who died in the pursuit of justice for workers.