Nothing Free About NAFTA for Laborers, Critics Say
By The Skilled Worker Staff
The U.S. economy has been getting stomped like a colony of ants under the foot of a sadistic five-year-old. With job losses climbing and the volatility in the equity markets extending into the second quarter of 2008, observers are looking for scapegoats as much as a way out of the mess.
Increasingly, NAFTA is coming under fire. The Democratic candidates for president, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, have blamed the agreement for higher unemployment in the skilled labor workforce. Clinton has also claimed that tariffs by Canada and Mexico prevent the free trade act from working fairly for Americans.
The politicians aren’t alone, as more and more critics are lambasting NAFTA for hurting blue-collar workers. “Three million manufacturing jobs have been lost, replaced by lower-wage service-sector jobs, while U.S. median wages are stuck near 1970s levels. Despite doubled productivity, we’re returning to Gilded Age levels of inequality,” Todd Tucker of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch division wrote in the Louisville Courier-Journal this month.
Criticism has risen in recent weeks with the latest data that job losses are ballooning. The construction industry dropped 51,000 jobs in March and manufacturing jobs were down by 48,000 as the national unemployment rate rose to 5.1% from 4.8% in February. Manufacturing jobs have now fallen by 310,000 in one year, according to government reports.
Unemployment in the U.S. is now at its highest level since September 2005, when Hurricane Katrina washed away thousands of construction projects.
Jobs are in the spotlight as Obama and Clinton duel for votes in Pennsylvania, which will hold its Democratic primary on April 22. Both candidates recently promised audiences in Pittsburgh that they will review NAFTA in order to bring back manufacturing jobs.
Australia in Dire Need of Skilled Workers
Such is the labor shortage in Australia that the nation’s most urbanized state says it requires 40,000 workers over the next five years to keep pace with building projects. The Master Builders Association of Victoria says construction is lagging largely because of the difficulty in recruiting skilled labor. The problem is causing delays in housing projects and price increases for commercial and residential properties.
India Invades Norway
Talk about global migration. A study by the Norwegian Immigration Department recently revealed that India leads the way in providing foreign skilled workers to the Scandinavian country. With 618 skilled workers, Indians made up 25 percent of the foreign workforce entering Norway in 2007. Whether you can find a good spot for curry in Oslo still remains to be seen.
Tags: australia, barack obama, global trade watch, hillary clinton, manufacturing jobs, master builders association of victoria, nafta, norway, skilled workers
