Postal workers rallied against the Trans Pacific Partnership in Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday, claiming the controversial trade deal strips them of worker protections and threatens to privatize the postal service.
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Members of the American Postal Workers Union held signs and chanted against the agreement, which has been blasted by trade unions for weakening states at the hands of multinational corporations. Postal workers fear it may cost them their jobs, along with those of other public employees, by encouraging the privatization of state services.
The American Postal Workers Union is holding its biennial convention this week, with the trade agreement a top agenda item. TPP and other trade agreements, said APWU President Mark Dimondstein, “enrich multinationals at the expense of workers everywhere.”
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“Postal workers are a proud part of a global grassroots movement in opposing this devious, corporate-backed deal which would hurt workers and the environment in 12 different countries—if allowed to go forward,” Dimondstein said.
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“Like NAFTA and other hard-sold multinational deals, the TPP was negotiated in secret and has very little to do with trade between nations. It’s about increasing the power of multinational corporations to dictate our future, and it’s about taking away the rights of citizens and workers to advocate for a better quality of life.”
Dimondstein said that he is most worried about TPP provisions that regulate state-owned services, which are still being withheld from the public as it awaits ratification.
The agreement, drafted in secret, would not only affect the postal service, but would also help propel current efforts to privatize roads, schools, water utilities, prisons and parks, he said.
The APWU, which has 200,000 members, focused its critique on the investor-state dispute settlement clause because it would “lower worker protections to the lowest common denominator.”