Mesabi Daily News | By Linda Tyssen | October 4, 2003
EVELETH - It's not just about standing up for steel - it's about everybody's jobs, it's about America.
That's the message Jerry Fallos wants to send about next Friday's Rally on the Range in Eveleth, part of a nationwide protest of the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement opponents say could cost thousands of American jobs.
The rally kicks off at 4 p.m. Oct. 10 at the Range Recreation Civic Center near the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame with a march to the gate of the closed EVTAC Mining. Speakers, including U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., will follow the march.
"We want to make enough noise to let our legislators and congressmen we're not going to sit idly by while jobs go across the border,'' Fallos said. "Stand up for steel. Stand up for our jobs. Stand up for our country.''
The event is one in a series of March to Miami rallies and marches held across the United States, preceding the meeting of representatives from more than 30 Western Hemisphere countries to talk about FTAA. Many union members from Northeastern Minnesota are expected to travel to Miami in November during the FTAA talks.
In keeping with the theme of the Eveleth event - a workers' rally and ball - there will be musical entertainment throughout the evening. Some 9,000 postcards have been mailed to inform people of the event.
"I would like to see people there because some don't realize what the FTAA is,'' said Fallos, who was Steelworkers Union Local 4108 president at LTV Steel Mining when it shut down. "Whenever they think of foreign trade, they think of steel. They don't realize it also affects service sector jobs. It affects those as much as steelworker jobs,'' Fallos said.
People should be outraged and frightened with the prospect of FTAA, which has been described by some as "NAFTA on steroids.'' The North American Free Trade Agreement, passed in 1994, opened up trade borders and is blamed for the loss of thousands of jobs in the United States and Canada.
FTAA, which would go into effect at the end of 2005 if approved by Congress, covers all the countries in the Americas except Cuba. According to those who oppose FTAA, there are no negotiating groups for labor rights and environmental standards. The FTAA could grant more power to overturn national, state and local laws as "barriers to trade.'' According to a union fact sheet on FTAA, passage of the agreement "could make it illegal for any country to create universal public health care or education'' and could allow privatization of those markets.
Under the "fast track'' rules adopted in 2002, Congress gave its constitutional treaty-writing power to the president of the United States. The president can send the completed FTAA agreement to Congress and the Congress must vote within 60 days. There can be no amendments, and Congress votes it up or down.
A purpose of the rally is to educate the people on FTAA, said Fallos. It will feature such speakers as Larry Weiss, head of the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition, and David Foster, director of Steelworkers District 11.
An issue such as NAFTA crosses party lines. It was passed under Democratic President Bill Clinton, and Republican President George W. Bush has had the power to repeal it, said Fallos. "To want to expand it (NAFTA) is mind-boggling,'' Fallos said. It's a misconception that the Steeelworkers are the "antiglobal community'' and that "we're against trade.'' The truth is, Fallos said, "we want a level playing field.'' That became especially clear to him when LTV Steel was in crisis and American workers said they could "work for nothing'' and still couldn't compete with foreign steel.
Environmental and religious groups also have a stake in FTAA, when it comes to "basic human rights and dignity of people.'' They're concerned with the sweat shops in some of the countries that would be included in the FTAA, where workers put in 18-hour days and might be locked inside the building.
Curtis Bush of Witness for Peace will be among the speakers at Friday's rally, telling of his time spent in the Maquiladoras area of Mexico, where many American companies have set up factories and people are paid low wages and living conditions are poor.
Charlie Olson, coordinator of Stand Up for Steel, said the FTAA issue is important to everybody. "If the FTAA is enacted the way it is, Brazil has the opportunity to send in pellets and ore at will,'' he said. According to a chart from the Skillings Mining Review, the United States in 2002 produced some 50 million tons of ore, while Brazil produced some 170 million tons.
Marty Henry, president of Steelworkers Local 6115 at Ispat Inland Mining, said of NAFTA, that now jobs are even leaving Mexico, as corporation owners are finding cheaper labor in China. There are some corporations "that would lvoe to stay in this country,'' he said. "But they can't afford to compete in this country.''
"They're perpetuating the race to the bottom,'' said Judy Henry of Local 6115. "There isn't going to be a middle class here. We have to stand up for the common, everyday working person and demand a stake in this global trade.''
Other speakers at the rally will include Kris Jacobs, JOBS NOW Coalition; Rosie Loeffler-Kemp, Clean Water Action; Cathy Warner, president of Steelworkers Local 9460, the largest such local on the Range representing health care employees; the Rev. Kristin Foster, Action Through Churches Together; Dana Zasadni, a college student and recent graduate of Eveleth-Gilbert High School; Sen. Dave Tomassoni, DFL-Chisholm; Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia. Ida Rukavina will introduce the speakers, Ed Schneider of Gilbert will sing the national anthem and area VFW posts will present the colors.
The event is sponsored by Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition, United Steelworkers of America, Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment, Iron Range Labor Assembly, AFL-CIO, Duluth Central Labor Body, Labor World newspaper, Witness for Peace, Clean Water Action Alliance of Minnesota, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.Mesabi Daily News:
