Trade

Workers Uniting calls for trade policies that put people first, not big corporations.

Manufacturing jobs across the USA, UK and Canada are disappearing. The United States has lost more than 5 million manufacturing jobs since 2000 - at least 2.3 million directly attributable to the trade imbalance with China. These include not just production workers but administrative, information technology, research and development and management as well.

Manufacturing generates 15 per cent of the UK’s GDP, employs 12 per cent of the UK's entire workforce and accounts for £150 billion in exports, yet the UK government continues to pay insufficient attention to manufacturing and the consequential loss of jobs to the economy.

American manufacturing workers are among the most productive in the world, but they operate under enormous, competitive disadvantages. American manufacturing facilities are also among the most efficient, clean and safe in the world.

Revitalising manufacturing will require improving trade policies and ending incentives for corporations to flee U.S. shores. Addressing the nation’s healthcare crisis and ensuring that workers have the freedom to decide for themselves whether to join a union without employer interference.

Workers Uniting is campaigning for direct investment by American, Canadian and UK governments in workers by adopting a positive procurement policy. The union is campaigning so that the global race to the bottom ends for the sake of working people in the USA, Canada and UK, and workers around the world.