Fair Trade for Working Families

By
CTC
– May 19, 2026Posted in: Breaking Issues

Fair Trade for Working Families (H.Res. 1286) is a new measure in Congress based on three simple truths:

  1. Corporate-driven trade deals have been a disaster for working people at home and abroad;
  2. President Trump’s “Billionaires First” trade approach has failed to create jobs or raise wages; and
  3. We need a new model for trade that actually works for working people.

Fair Trade for Working Families offers a blueprint for trade that puts the interests of working people and communities ahead of greedy corporations.  This includes:

    • Fair Wage Guarantees. Guarantee fair wages across manufacturing, food processing, call centers, back-office service providers and other trade-impacted professions and ensure fair treatment for all workers regardless of nationality.
    • Preventing Job Offshoring. Remove incentives for companies to offshore jobs through strong labor, wage and environmental standards backed by enforcement mechanisms that punish corporations that violate people’s rights.
    • Safe Food & Family Farms. Enforce strong food safety protections, mandatory country-of-origin labeling, policies that require farmers to be paid fair prices and those offering ready access to affordable, healthy foods for consumers.
    • Stopping Abuses by Big Tech. Eliminate so-called “digital trade” rules that restrict personal privacy, data security, A.I. accountability, Right to Repair, civil rights and anti-monopoly policies and that facilitate the offshoring of digital economy jobs.
    • Ending Corporate Special Rights. Dismantle the “Investor-State Dispute Settlement” (ISDS) system and other policies that give transnational corporations special rights beyond those allowed by U.S. law and the Constitution.
    • A Healthy Environment. Establish strong, easily-enforced standards on air, water and ground pollution and those promoting climate solutions for current and future generations.
    • Affordable Medicine. Protect governments’ rights to use compulsory licensing to address public health needs and to negotiation for lower prescription medicine prices, while excluding monopoly protections for Big Pharma.
    • Real Public Oversight. Require trade negotiators to publish their proposals for public comment before entering trade talks with other countries, to share draft composite texts in real time, and to subject any trade deals to mandatory votes by Congress.

Introduced by fair trade champion Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, Fair Trade for Working Families’ endorsers include Citizens Trade Campaign, the AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers (USW), International Association of Machinists (IAM Union), United Auto Workers (UAW), Sierra Club, National Family Farm Coalition, Public Citizen, Rethink Trade and others.

TAKE ACTION
Urge your U.S. Representative to cosponsor Fair Trade for Working Families (H.Res. 1286)

Resources
Full text of Fair Trade for Working Families (H.Res. 1286) is online here.

Read what labor and civil society groups are saying here.

Download a PDF of palm card about Fair Trade for Working Families here.

Watch the press conference introducing Fair Trade for Working Families here.

 

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