Labor Union Blog

The role of the North American Free Trade Agreement in the Democratic Presidential election has both sides of the American and Canadian border buzzing. Did advisors for Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton tell the Canadian government not to be concerned with comments made on the campaign trail and during debates suggesting they would reopen NAFTA for renegotiation? Both candidates have said they would pull out of the agreement if it isn’t renegotiated to include job and environmental protections. It all started early last week when the Canadian Television Network ran a report quoting an unnamed source who said Obama’s economic advisor, Austan Goolsbee called the Canadian ambassador to the United States and told him not to take seriously the Senators statements regarding NAFTA because they are just campaign rhetoric. Since that time the CTV has reported a similar communication coming from the Clinton camp. Since then, the Candian embassy has issued a statement which says:

Yesterday, the USS New York, the Navy’s most modern troop and equipment transport ship, was christened at Northrop Grumman’s Avondale Shipyard in New Orleans. What makes the ship unique is the 7.5 tons of steel taken from the wreckage of the World Trade Center destroyed in the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks that was cast into the bow of the ship.

There is something else special about the USS New York, says Ron Ault, president of the AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department. The hundreds of union members from the unions that make up the New Orleans Metal Trades Council built that ship while they were still dealing with the devastating impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. One of those workers is Boilermakers (IBB) member J.F. Martinez, who every night after work went home to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailer he and his wife share.

Yesterday, the USS New York, the Navy’s most modern troop and equipment transport ship, was christened at Northrop Grumman’s Avondale Shipyard in New Orleans. What makes the ship unique is the 7.5 tons of steel taken from the wreckage of the World Trade Center destroyed in the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks that was cast into the bow of the ship.

There is something else special about the USS New York, says Ron Ault, president of the AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department. The hundreds of union members from the unions that make up the New Orleans Metal Trades Council built that ship while they were still dealing with the devastating impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. One of those workers is Boilermakers (IBB) member J.F. Martinez, who every night after work went home to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailer he and his wife share.