Building Global Solidarity: Change to Win Leaders Visit China

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, May 15, 2007

CONTACT: TJ Michels or Greg Denier
202-721-0660

WASHINGTON DC -- To help create good jobs in the global economy, a delegation of leaders from Change to Win and its partner unions are visiting China over the next two weeks to meet with workers, academics, activists, and leaders from labor networks, NGOs, business groups and government organizations.

Nearly 70 percent of American workers surveyed in a recent CtW poll said they feel their economic security is threatened in the global economy, a finding that underscores the need for this solidarity-building mission amongst U.S. and Chinese workers at a critical turning point:

  • Globalization has become an ever present force in the U.S. economy, with China emerging as the economic powerhouse that increasingly sets the norm for working standards around the world.
  • Chinese imports to the U.S. has swelled to $300 billion and growing, filling the stores of America's retailers. If Wal-Mart were a country, it would be China's 8th largest trading partner.

"We are ready to build a new generation of solidarity to lift labor standards around the world," said Anna Burger, Chair of Change to Win, an alliance of seven unions representing six million workers which came together to transform the jobs that are forming the basis of the new American economy. "We must ensure that all workers, not just corporations and CEOs, can share in the benefits of the global economy."

Change to Win unions share common employers with millions of Chinese workers throughout the service, transportation and industrial sectors. The delegation will explore the corporate practices and working conditions within large multinationals, including major U.S.-based employers who currently operate without enforceable fair trade laws: The same CtW poll also found nearly 80 percent of American workers believe multinational corporations are too powerful, and have driven down wages, eliminated health care and retirement security, and disregarded labor laws.

Despite the rapid progress and wealth creation that have changed the way many Chinese live, great challenges remain for the workers in vast industrial centers, with more workers laboring under sweatshop conditions than anywhere in the world, 800 million rural poor, and 180 million unemployed. China has more unemployment than the U.S. has workers.

The delegation will visit Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing to meet with workers in factories and other jobsites to learn about working conditions. They will also investigate transportation and logistics facilities as part of Change to Win's focus on the global supply chain.

Joining Burger on the trip are Change to Win Secretary-Treasurer Edgar Romney (UNITE HERE) and Executive Director Greg Tarpinian. Change to Win partner unions will be represented by Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa, Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern, and United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez.

"The workers of the new U.S. and Chinese economies share many of the same challenges," said Burger. "Solidarity is vital for workers to create good jobs at home and to spread prosperity abroad."

For more key findings from the Change to Win survey, "The Working American Dream Agenda," which revealed rising anger and anxiety over corporate behavior, government inaction and a worker's agenda for the 21st century, visit http://www.changetowin.org/features/the-american-dream-survey.html .