Portland, Ore. —  An  Oregon fair trade advocacy coalition has released a new analysis of U.S. Labor Department data showing that Oregon lost the fourth most jobs to offshoring out of any state in the country in 2012 when measured by population.

“The data clearly shows that, year after year, trade agreements have been bleeding Oregon communities of much-needed jobs. 106 mill workers in St. Helens were just laid off from Boise White Paper” said Greg Pallesen, Vice President of the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers.  “Rather than stopping the outgoing flow of jobs, this new Trans-Pacific Partnership is likely to open up an artery.”

The newly compiled data released today by the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign shows that the Labor Department certified 1,911 Oregon jobs as destroyed by either direct offshoring or displacement by imports in 2012, which is a 34% increase over 2011 and brings the total number of trade-displaced jobs certified by the Labor Department in the state since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect in 1994 up to 55,085.

The following charts show where Oregon stands in relation to other states:

States with the Most Trade-Related Job Losses Per Capita
as Certified by the U.S. Department of Labor (2012)

State – Jobs Lost
1.  Arkansas – 3,769
2.  Massachusetts – 3,903
3.  Louisiana – 2,686
4.  Oregon – 1,911
5.  Ohio – 5,662

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Trade Act Program Database
The U.S. Labor Department individually certifies workplace layoffs as being trade-related in order to qualify displaced workers for the Trade Adjustment Assistance program.  The coalition argues that this data set necessarily undercounts the true number of Oregon jobs that have been offshored, first, because it requires someone to proactively apply for certification and, second, because people in service sector jobs that have been offshored, such as those in call centers or computer programming, have typically been disqualified by law from inclusion in the program.

Oregon workplaces certified as having trade-related layoffs in 2012 included ATI (Albany), Aosom (Lake Oswego), Agro Group (Portland), Boise (St Helens), CenturyLink (Medford), Cognizant Technology Solutions (Beaverton), Consolidated Pine (Prineville), Cooper Bussman/Sure Power Industries (Tualatin), FT Material Solutions (Fairview), Fashion Tech (Portland), Hewlett-Packard (Corvallis), IdaTech (Bend), Jeld-Wen (Bend), Kelly Services (Albany), Lattice Semiconductor (Hillsboro), Lumber Products (Tualatin), Maxim Integrated Products (Hillsboro), Peak Sun Silicon
(Albany), SIC Processing USA (Portland), Siltronic (Portland), Simple Way (McMinnville), Solaicx (Portland), T-Mobile (Redmond), TE Connectivity (Wilsonville) and Yahoo (Hillsboro).

“Far too many of Oregon’s families have already suffered through having their livelihoods shipped overseas as a result of bad trade policies like NAFTA,” said Elizabeth Swager, director of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign.  “if trade talks move forward on the Trans-Pacific Partnership it would offshore even more Oregon jobs by forcing local employers to compete with goods made under sweatshop working conditions in countries like Vietnam and Malaysia, where workers are paid even less than those in China.  That’s a losing situation for working people in any country.”

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is currently under negotiation between the United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.  Among those countries alone, it would become the largest Free Trade Agreement in U.S. history, but it is also being specifically negotiated as a “docking agreement” that would be open for any country in the Asia-Pacific region to join.

“Despite having completed fifteen major rounds of TPP negotiations over a period of several years, U.S. negotiators refuse to tell the American public what they’ve been proposing in our names, while granting hundreds of corporate lobbyists access to the negotiating texts,” said Swager.  “This sort of back-room deal-making will not turn out well for working Oregonians, and must be opposed.  Every member of Oregon’s Congressional delegation, except Greg Walden, has spoken out against the lack of transparency.”

The Blaine summit and rally’s organizing partners included the AFL-CIO, Citizens Trade Campaign, Council of Canadians, Sierra Club and over a dozen other regional social justice organizations.  ORFTC supplied the piñata.

Among several initiatives launched at the organizing summit was a new North American Unity Statement Opposing NAFTA Expansion through the TPP, and a goal of reaching over 1,000 organizational sign-on’s by early 2013.  ORFTC urges groups to add their names to it.

To get updated on next steps in the campaign, please sign up for monthly briefing calls or email elizabeth@oregonfairtrade.org.

Please email Senators Wyden and Merkley now and urge them to cosponsor critical fair trade legislation called The 21st Century Trade and Market Access Act to ensure we aren’t saddled with a new “NAFTA of the Pacific.”

First introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, The 21st Century Trade and Market Access Act reasserts Congressional and public oversight over the TPP and future trade policies.  It sets a range of binding negotiating requirements regarding labor rights, the environment, food safety and other provisions that are needed to ensure that the TPP and other pacts actually improve life for ordinary working people in Oregon and throughout the world.

The bill also establishes commonsense compliance reporting mechanisms and export promotion activities in order to maximize the job creation potential of U.S. trade agreements — transforming “job creation” and “human rights” in U.S. trade policy from cynical hype into reality.

Photo by Doug Yarrow

Despite having reportedly introduced text for some 29 different chapters, the U.S. Trade Representative has barred ordinary Americans from reviewing any of its proposals.  Even Senator Ron Wyden (D – Ore.) who chairs the Senate Trade Subcommittee charged with reviewing trade policy was initially refused access to TPP negotiating documents.

Meanwhile, approximately 600 corporate lobbyists have regular access to the negotiating texts as so-called “cleared advisors.”  This sort of back-room dealmaking only benefits the 1% and has to end.  In May, ORFTC helped deliver over 42,000 petition signatures urging that USTR inform the American public what its been proposing in our names.  That request has been flatly refused.  Over 700,000 have since signed this petition from Avaaz (which you can help push over the million signer mark by signing and sharing).

It’s also time for elected officials to intervene. TAKE ACTION NOW:  Urge Congress to demand transparency in the TPP.

Please help Daniel’s family through this trying time by making a contribution to the Daniel F. Bonham Memorial Fund.  You can drop off a donation at any West Coast Bank location or mail a check made out to “Daniel F. Bonham Memorial Fund” to:  West Coast Bank; PO Box 827 (MS 143); Salem, OR  97308

Daniel Bonham first became involved with the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign as a Carpenter active in PCASC’s Cross Border Labor Organizing Council, when he began to serve on our steering committee and, then eventually, as an officer on our Board of Directors.  Professionally, Daniel also served for many years as the Executive Director of the Fair Contracting Foundation, and more recently as a private investigator, fighting to ensure that men and women working on construction projects received the full compensation to which they were entitled.  He was active in the trade justice struggle, his union, Latin American solidarity, third-party politics and a host of other progressive causes.

Daniel always worked incredibly hard when it came to demanding that people’s rights be respected.  He was never afraid to step up and grab the megaphone and speak out, but he also never shied away from the grunt work that makes effective organizing possible, and he was almost ridiculously committed to seeing that that nuts-and-bolts work got done.

Daniel was ORFTC’s Secretary-Treasurer and would come into the office to check our books quarterly.  One of the last times he was here, he walked in the door apologizing for being a few minutes late.  A car had stopped short in front of him, and to avoid a full-on crash, he’d had to intentionally wipe out his motorcycle.  He sat down with our financial reports, and ORFTC director Arthur Stamoulis noticed that the right side of his jeans were completely shredded and even some patches of his leather jacket were worn through.  He had some nasty looking road rash underneath, and Arthur asked him if he needed to go to the emergency room.  No, Daniel said, but maybe he would go to the bathroom to wash things out after spot-checking a few more receipts.  As much as we’ve come to expect from ORFTC’s volunteers, that was above-and-beyond, even for us.

That’s not to say that Daniel didn’t have his priorities straight.  Daniel leaves behind a wife, four children and a grandchild, and he was incredibly proud of them.  Often, after doing the lion’s share of the work organizing one ORFTC event or another, he’d skip out on enjoying the fruits of his labor at the event itself in order to instead go attend a martial arts class or a swim meet with his family. These were decisions that we always respected, and that we can only hope contributed to some well-cherished memories for his children and wife.

Daniel’s day-in and day-out leadership is something that we will sorely miss.  Not only did he serve ORFTC well as a an officer and public representative of our organization and our cause, be it by checking the books, leading phonebanks, speaking at events, meeting with legislators and, oh-so-importantly, soliciting donations.  He also demonstrated what it means to approach social justice organizing as a marathoner rather than a sprinter.  He was the type of person impatient for change, but completely unwilling to give up on it either.  He just kept moving forward, with each step perhaps a little wiser and better informed.

One of our favorite photos of Daniel (among many) is from a rally he spoke at outside of then-Congresswoman Darlene Hooley’s, urging her to choose a side on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.  There was never any doubt which side Daniel was on.  He will always be remembered by this organization, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

All are welcome at the public, nondenominational memorial services being held on Saturday, March 10 at 2:00pm at the LDS chapel at 1000 Country Club Rd in Woodburn.  

Daniel’s family would also appreciate if you could email any memories or photos of him to 4danielbonham@gmail.com. 

Oregon cannot afford another trade deal that ships good-paying jobs overseas, reduces the tax base and puts a downward pressure on the wages and benefits in jobs we have left — all while handing new power to Wall Street to challenge financial, environmental and other public interest regulations.  Learn more about the Trans-Pacific FTA and take action to help prevent it from becoming a NAFTA of the Pacific.

UPDATE:  During ORFTC events on the Trans-Pacific FTA held in Redmond, Eugene, Ashland, Portland, Monmouth and Salem in February 2012, Oregonians from across the state signed letters urging their senior Senator to press the U.S. Trade Representative to publish its FTA proposals — and shortly thereafter, Senator Wyden contacted us pledging to do just that.

TAKE ACTION:  Please urge Senator Wyden to continue pressing for transparency in the Trans-Pacific FTA negotiations.

You and I know that’s bunk, and now the Oregon State Senate is on record, too, speaking out for new rules governing international trade. Sponsored by State Senators Chip Shields and Brian Boquist, Senate Memorial 201 calls on Congress to enact and the President to sign comprehensive trade reform legislation called the Trade, Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment Act — or TRADE Act, for short.  SM 201 passed on February 10, 2012 with overwhelming bipartisan support.

The TRADE Act lays out a new framework for international trade and would put an end to existing and future NAFTA-style trade agreements that put corporate profits ahead of working people, family farmers, consumer safety and the environment.  A heartfelt “THANK YOU” for all your help building support for a new model for trade.

ORFTC spoke with farmers, local food advocates and others to gain a better understanding of how these issues are playing out locally.  We share our findings in the new report Going Global in a Localized Economy: Trade Policy and Food Systems in Oregon’s Southern Willamette Valley.

Thank you to everyone who made calls, sent emails, attended rallies, phonebanked and generally worked their butts off to try to stop these NAFTA-style pacts.  The one silver lining is that a greater percentage of Congressional Democrats opposed these FTAs than opposed the Peru FTA, NAFTA, the WTO, China PNTR — or any negative bill offered up by President Obama.

Find out how your Member of Congress voted, and check out our online toolkit for further information about why these trade deals are so bad for Oregon.