The Bush administration's proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) lowers the bar on human and worker rights even further than its predecessor North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Caribbean Basin Initiative pacts.

That was the message to Congress from labor leaders testifying at hearings on the proposed trade agreement.

The AFL-CIO launched a grassroots campaign to defeat the proposed trade treaty. As part of the Global Week of Action on Trade April 10-16, union, student, environmental, religious and family farm activists called their members of Congress during a national "CAFTA Call-In Day" to urge them to vote down the pact.

AFL-CIO Secy.-Treas. Richard L. Trumka

AFL-CIO Secy.-Treas. Richard L. Trumka told the House Ways and Means Committee that, in the United States, last year's record $617 billion trade deficit, the loss of some 3 million manufacturing jobs, and average wages that are not keeping pace with inflation are just three of many reasons Congress needs to rethink this country's trade deals.

"Offshore outsourcing of white-collar jobs is increasingly impacting highly educated, highly skilled workers–leading to rising unemployment rates for engineers and college graduates," Trumka said. "Together, record trade and budget deficits, unsustainable levels of consumer debt, and stagnant wages paint a picture of an economy living beyond its means, dangerously unstable in a volatile global environment," he said.

"CAFTA is not the answer to the challenges faced in Central America or the United States," Trumka told lawmakers. "On the contrary, it represents a failed model that will likely exacerbate poverty and inequality in Central America, while further eroding good jobs and wages at home. At the same time, its excessive protections for multinational corporations would undermine the ability of governments to protect public health, strong communities, and the environment."

AFL-CIO Exec. Vice Pres. Linda Chavez-Thompson

AFL-CIO Exec. Vice Pres. Linda Chavez-Thompson told the House International Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere: "Instead of improving things, CAFTA will further oppress workers, depress wages in Central America and cost jobs in the United States."

"The deal will do nothing to pull people out of poverty in Central America, and it has the potential to plunge workers further into exploitation," Chavez-Thompson said.

CAFTA would eliminate tariffs among the United States, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Labor, economic and human rights groups warn that, as it is written now, CAFTA threatens to extend to Central America and the Caribbean the massive U.S. job loss, increasing inequality and environmental damage caused by NAFTA.

U.S. workers lost some 1 million jobs in industries that included aircraft, auto, apparel and consumer electronics to increasing trade deficits with NAFTA partners Canada and Mexico during the past 11 years, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Since NAFTA took effect in 1994, the U.S. trade deficit with Canada and Mexico increased by 12 times its pre-NAFTA level, rising to $111 billion in 2004.

Over the same period under NAFTA, wages fell in Mexico and the number of Mexican workers living in poverty increased, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

UNITE HERE Chief Economist Mark Levinson told the Senate Finance Committee that "CAFTA fails to remedy the fundamental weaknesses of the NAFTA model."

According to an AFL-CIO report, "The Real Record on Workers' Rights in Central America," 40 percent of Central America's workers currently earn less than $2 a day and workers' rights are routinely abused–including the right to organize and bargain collectively.

Many of the potential CAFTA trading partners have been repeatedly criticized for their abuse of human and worker rights by the U.S. State Department, International Labor Organization, and independent human rights organizations.

The report said CAFTA's rules on labor rights actually backtrack from rules currently governing trade with those nations under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and the Caribbean Basin Initiative. Not only does CAFTA fail to require the trade partners to respect workers' rights in exchange for trade preferences, it eliminates enforcement tools available in the current unilateral trade programs, the report said.

Similar to NAFTA, CAFTA will be considered by Congress under so-called "fast track" rules, under which it can only be voted up or down but not amended.

Trumka, Chavez-Thompson and Levinson urged Congress to vote the proposed treaty down and force the Bush administration to renegotiate the agreement to include internationally recognized worker rights, including the right to form unions and bargain collectively. They also called for an agreement that would relieve the debt of Central American nations so they can adequately fund education, health care and infrastructure needs and reduce financial instability.