Dayton unions and community groups plan to rally today in front of Republican U.S. Congressman Mike Turner’s Dayton office. They’ll urge him to vote no on fast tracking the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. The fast track legislation would make it possible for the president to push the large trade agreement through congress quickly with no amendments.
Brian Mason, the political coordinator for IUE-CWA Local 755, thinks the agreement would lead to more jobs being outsourced to Asian countries.
“Manufacturing has picked up and moved to countries with lower wages like Mexico and they want to move to even lower wage countries like Vietnam,” Mason says.
Mason also has concerns over how the agreement would affect food safety and prescription drug costs.
He says for now the trade deal is being negotiated secretly, with very little transparency. Ohio’s two senators have pushed for amendments to the deal. Democrat Sherrod Brown faced off with President Obama recently over worker protections in the bill.
Congressman Mike Turner’s staff didn’t respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
