The Trans-Pacific Free Trade Negotiations are continuing in secret, and that’s the best way for representatives of the one percent to undermine our liberties, undercut our wages, and destroy our tax base. Sounds like a good plan to redistribute our income to themselves via higher profits, greater dividends and rising share prices. But what about those folks that get our jobs. They’ll be better off won’t they? Of course not! They’re on the bottom rung on the race to the bottom, but what nobody will tell you is that the bottom rung keeps sinking lower.
At the Taiwanese-owned Rich Pine Factory, the workers imported from China and Bangladesh are working “grueling, mandatory seven-day, 96 hour work weeks.” These people are producing stuff for Liz Claiborne, Macy’s, J.C. Penney, Kohl’s and others. Less than a year ago, these folks were working only 93 hours a week. The bottom run is sinking, and so is their and our standards of living.
