CAFTA Protests on National Call-in Day
May 11, 2005
According to an article in The Daily Labor Report, some 1,200 union members from the United States and the Dominican Republic called on the Congress to reject CAFTA. The 1,200 union members staged a rally on Capitol Hill and lobbied members of Congress as part of a two-day conference held by the AFL-CIO's Industrial Union Council. The US unions explained their reasons for opposing the agreement, charging that "America is in a jobs crisis" and that CAFTA will make it worse, while representatives of unions in the Dominican Republic spoke at the rally and said that most workers in the Dominican Republic oppose the agreement. Raphael Francisco-Abreu of the General Workers' Central (CGT) in the Dominican Republic estimated that CAFTA would result in the loss of 400,000 jobs in that country. Six anti-CAFTA legislators also spoke at the rally.
Aside from the protests at the Capitol, there have been numerous protests along the US Chamber of Commerce's road show of CAFTA nation presidents. Protests have received news coverage in Arizona, New York, and Los Angeles. At the Los Angeles protest, activists were able to confront President Tony Saca of El Salvador and challenge both his facts on what CAFTA will mean for El Salvador and his motivation for supporting the agreement before they were removed from the conference.