April 22, 2008

(Washington, D.C.) –Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa on Tuesday said the leaders of Canada, Mexico and the United States are mistaken in their defense of NAFTA.  

U.S. President George Bush, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper spoke after the two-day North American Leaders’ summit—the so-called “Three Amigos” summit—held to discuss a backdoor expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“It’s shocking that President Bush would say with a straight face that NAFTA has been good for all three economies,” Hoffa said. “NAFTA has been good for some of his friends who own multinational companies, but it has been terrible for workers across North America.  In 2004 alone, it displaced one million U.S. jobs and reduced wages by $7.6 billion. How can that be good for America?”

All three leaders claimed that NAFTA made their citizens more prosperous.

“Comments by the Three Amigos, especially by President Bush, show how completely out of touch they are with working families across America,” Hoffa said. “The dollar is getting weaker, oil prices hit a record today, average wages are dropping and the housing crisis is continuing to hurt families everywhere.

“Though President Bush again called for passage of the Colombia FTA, the last thing America needs is another bad trade deal, and we certainly don’t need one with Colombia, which allows the killing of trade unionists,” Hoffa said.

More than 2,500 trade unionists have been assassinated in Colombia, and very little has been done to bring their murderers to justice.

Hoffa said NAFTA needs to be reexamined and renegotiated. “NAFTA needs to be fixed so it works for everybody and not just the companies that leave the U.S. to take advantage of Mexican workers and lower wages,” Hoffa said. “When Sen. Obama is president, he will make sure that NAFTA is reexamined so that workers will finally, truly benefit as a result of it.”

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.