Texas Forum to Call on Congress to Stop TPP's Attack on Texan Jobs and Communities

CWA President Larry Cohen will lead a San Antonio, TX, public forum on Saturday on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal and the real hardship that it will mean for Texas working people and communities, unless Congress stands up for U.S. jobs and workers, and the right for the U.S. to determine its own laws.

Students, community and Latino groups, environmentalists, retirees and other activists will join CWAers at the forum.

Also participating will be CWA Vice Presidents Claude Cummings, D6, and Brooks Sunkett, Public, Healthcare and Education Workers; national commentator Jim Hightower; and Hal Suter, chair of the Lone Star Sierra Club. The forum is part of the Public, Healthcare and Education Workers Conference that runs through Aug. 3.

In Texas, CWA members, Sierra Club allies and others are engaging in targeted social media actions that call on their U.S. Representatives to stand up for good U.S. jobs and the ability of U.S. citizens to set our own laws. Members of Congress should support fair trade that benefits U.S. workers and communities, not just multinational corporations, is the message members of Congress will hear.

Ten of the 12 Democratic members of the Texas delegation are on record opposing fast track and the TPP. The two holdouts – Reps. Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio) and Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo) – haven't yet joined their colleagues in condemning the secrecy that has surrounded the TPP negotiations and the one-sided benefits for multinational corporations at the expense of U.S. workers' jobs and our country's ability to determine and carry out our own laws.

More than 153 House Democrats have taken a stand against "fast track" or Trade Promotion Authority for trade deals like TPP. The "fast track" process would require that Congress vote yes or no on the entire trade deal, with no opportunity to make any amendments. "The United States cannot afford another trade agreement that repeats the mistakes of the past, and, in fact, makes them worse. We can and must do better," these U.S. representatives wrote in a letter to President Obama.

Read more about the latest developments in TPP and trade: What's the Latest on the Trans Pacific Partnership?