Tag Archives: free trade

New Legislation Seeks to Protect Workers

Bill would ban so-called ‘Right-to-Work’ laws that weaken unions and cripple worker rights

** Update 10/27/2017: The latest meeting between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, held in Virginia Oct. 11-17, ended at an impasse on the basic notion of what a revised version of the 23-year-old agreement should achieve. Canada and Mexico stand by the idea of free trade; the U.S. wants to make it less free, saying that its partners to the north and to the south are benefiting more than the U.S. through access to its huge market. Talks resume Nov. 17 in Mexico City. **

United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) in September introduced the Protecting Workers and Improving Labor Standards Act to prohibit states from introducing laws that make it harder for workers to form unions and fight for higher wages and better working conditions. Continue reading