My Turn
Save Jobs, Save the Children

A South Milwaukee elementary teacher fears for the future of children worldwide if the Free Trade Area of the Americas act becomes law.

By Guy Costello

"They're closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks. Foreman says these jobs are going boys, And they ain't coming back to your hometown."

Those lyrics to a Bruce Springsteen song could apply to most any community in our nation that has experienced the social trauma caused by closed factories and lost jobs. In my hometown of Ithaca, New York, it was a shotgun factory and a company that made auto parts.

In your hometown it may have been a tire plant or a company that produced women's clothing. I am not an economist nor do I understand everything that can lead to economic down-turns. But I do know that a significant part of the blame lies with international trade agreements that promote free trade at the expense of workers, communities, and kids.

The Fair Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is a trade agreement--similar to NAFTA--that would give corporations free access to markets from Canada to Chile, with little or no government regulation or oversight. If Congress passes the FTAA and the President signs it, the agreement would take effect in 2005.

Why am I involved in issues like the FTAA, and why do I believe the NEA should oppose it?

My reasons start right here in South Milwaukee, where I live and teach. We have a factory in town called Bucyrus Erie. BE manufactures large mining and earth-moving equipment. About a century ago, BE built the huge steam shovels that were used to dig the Panama Canal.

Twenty-five years ago, almost 8,000 people worked at BE, many of them parents of students at our school. They made a union wage with union benefits. By the early to mid-1980s all that began to change. The reduction in the use of coal as an energy source played a part in the decline of jobs at Bucyrus Erie, but more significant were international trade policies that forced BE and others to lower wages or move jobs to Korea and South America to find cheaper labor.

Today BE employs fewer than 1,000 people in South Milwaukee. Thousands of good jobs were lost. Our students' parents, who once had union jobs and the benefits that go with them, now work in service jobs, and many barely make above the minimum wage.

Twenty years ago most parents had a good health plan for their families. Now they struggle to cover the cost of prescriptions or eyeglasses for their kids.

Twenty years ago parents made enough to buy a home and provide a secure income for the family. Now many families need help to pay for school lunches, and many children come to school without the books and materials they need.

I don't fault BE. The company has been and continues to be a strong supporter of our schools and community. I do fault policies that in the name of free trade exact a heavy toll on workers, communities, and children. This kind of free trade hasn't guaranteed freedom from poverty. It hasn't guaranteed free access to education. It hasn't guaranteed the freedom to join a union.

We have an opportunity to strengthen the labor movement by opposing the FTAA. Other unions have stood with us to oppose vouchers, to oppose paycheck protection, and to elect pro-public education candidates. This is our chance to return the favor and help clothing, auto, steel, and many other unions that have seen their memberships plummet due to trade policy.

As educators, we should oppose the FTAA because we care about children and their right to a quality education. FTAA offers no protections against child labor or guarantee of universal access to education. At last summer's NEA Representative Assembly, delegates learned the courageous story of Lieu Tran, who labored as a child in Vietnam and Cambodia. As Lieu said, she was one of the lucky ones because she escaped, but millions of children around the world are still forced to work to survive.

Children suffering because of child labor are not only in foreign lands. Each year, more and more of these children are showing up at our schoolroom doors.

My experience as a teacher and as a parent has taught me that all children, whether they live in South Milwaukee or Sierra Leone, Boston or Bogot?, Ventura or Vietnam, are our children--and it is up to us to stand up and fight for them.

I serve as Wisconsin's co-chair of The NEA Fund for Children and Public Education. I am proud to be part of this effort. But our work for children and public education does not end with raising money.

We should oppose the FTAA and ask our political representatives to do the same. Speaking out in defense of children is our business and responsibility. If we don't do it, who will?

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Guy Costello is in his 11th year at Lakeview Elementary, where he teaches a fourth-fifth multiage class. Costello also chairs the Legislative Committee of the Wisconsin Education Association Council.

Editor's Note

By the time you read this column, the newly designed NEA Web site www.nea.org should be up and running.

It's been a massive effort, over many months and involving many NEA staff as well as outside Web experts. You'll want to check it out, and while you're there you'll also notice how the online version of NEA Today has been integrated into the main NEA Web site.

There's a simple reason for this. As NEA's flagship publication, NEA Today covers education from the perspective of teachers and support staff who work in schools day in and day out. Our online presence recognizes this perspective.

The NEA Today Online also has a fresh look, but retains many familiar features. You'll see a whole new palette of color and updated and more readable typefaces.

Other changes include an improved search function that allows you to enter key words and access four years worth of the magazine.

NEA Today Online will also be easier to find from the main NEA Web site. Improved navigation will make it possible for you to get to NEA's main print publication from almost every page. To access NEA Today Online, go to: www.nea.org/neatoday.

Let us know what you think, and thanks for your patience during these past months while the site was under construction.

A final note about Web site listings in NEA Today. In two Fall issues, we listed Web sites hosted by two legitimate education organizations. Weeks later, we found out that both education groups had let their site licenses lapse, and two other non-education businesses had taken them over.

We do check out all the sites before they're listed, but unfortunately, Web site addresses and licenses do change frequently.