Workers' Rights and Trade Agreements

The decline in workers’ rights and representation, as well as the redistribution of wealth and power toward corporations at the top, has been evident ever since The Taft-Hartely Act. So, Kucinich, the most labor progressive and only Union member among the candidates, will repeal the Taft-Hartely Act as President.

However, the steady trends of declining workers’ rights, increase in outsourcing of trade and technical jobs, and our massively growing trade passage of NAFTA and the WTO. In fact, the passage of NAFTA and the WTO. In fact, these trade agreements are written in such a way as to encourage these trends and, as previous attempts have shown, any such reforms are doomed to fail by the binding authority of these agreements.

Thus, Kucinich is the only candidate offering a comprehensive solution to this issue: withdrawing the U.S. from these trade agreements (NAFTA/WTO). Once the U.S. withdraws from these agreements, we will renegotiate bilateral trade agreements, based upon human rights, workers’ rights, equal rights and environmental principles. This will save millions of jobs currently being outsourced. But, Kucinich will go further by creating millions of new jobs and more wealth among the middle/working classes and small businesses, while simultaneously addressing our crumbling infrastructural problems and energy needs, through his Works Green Administration (WGA).

Inspired by FDR's Works Progress Administration, the WGA utilizes the Environmental Protection Agency to put millions of Americans back to work rebuilding our schools, bridges, roads, ports, water systems, and environmental systems. Not only does the bold practicality of the plan lie in putting Americans back to work by investing in the national wealth of our own infrastructure, but the plan also incorporates environmental and energy concerns to further create wealth for the country and save individual families more money. For example, not only will the public works projects stress green building and renewable energy technology, but the plan will enable homes to be retrofit with green building, solar and wind microtechnology which will save families money on their energy bills.

He will also look at the use of H-1B and L-1 visas, which have had a negative effect on the workplace of Information Technology workers in America. It has caused a reduction in wages. It has forced workers to accept deteriorating working conditions and allowed U.S. companies to concentrate work in technical and geographic areas that American workers consider undesirable. It has also reduced the number of IT jobs held by Americans.

Kucinich will ensure that the government provide adequate funds for the enforcement of visa regulations -- including much-ignored regulations prohibiting the use of foreign nationals in critical infrastructure -- and appoint a special investigator to examine the extent and nature of H-1B and L-1 visa fraud. We need an industry fact-finding commission, including representatives of major U.S. investors, U.S. tech workers, and business leaders who have been competitive in the international marketplace without use of the H-1B / L-1 program. These representatives can make suggestions as to a new policy on the immigration of people with specialized knowledge or unique skills.

Under Dennis Kucinich, Americans goes back to work with better wages and better conditions to build a better country.