Florida Teamsters Rally Against FTAA As Trade Ministers Prepare to Meet

Florida Teamsters Rally Against FTAA As Trade Ministers Prepare to Meet

November 15, 2003

(Sunrise, FL) – More than 1,000 Teamster Union members rallied today against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) as trade ministers prepared to hold talks next week in Miami.

"NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) has already cost hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and the FTAA will only add to that tragedy."

Mike Scott, President of Teamsters Local 769 in Miami said "We cannot allow Big Business to dictate our trade policies—we must stand up and fight the FTAA."

Scott urged the crowd to sign ballots opposing the FTAA and said the Teamsters will be visible at next week's trade talks during a two-mile march outside the meeting site. Saturday's rally was at Markham Park in Sunrise, north of Miami.

Scott was joined at the podium by The Rev. James Orange, a Civil Rights and Labor activist who marched with The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights battles of the 1960s. Orange urged Teamsters to work together to stop FTAA and other unjust trade policies that are costing American jobs and stomping on labor rights.

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