Sherrod Fights For Workers, Stands Against Bad Trade Deals
COLUMBUS, OH – This week, Sherrod met with workers in the Mahoning Valley to discuss his legislation to level the playing field for American workers, increase wages, and fight unfair trade practices by foreign countries. In November, he successfully pushed the Biden Administration to drop the trade pillar in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that would have left Ohio workers behind.
Sherrod Brown: “My values have always been clear: no trade deals without strong, enforceable labor standards – standards that guarantee Ohio workers a real, level playing field. That’s why I stood up to the trade pillar in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that the Administration was negotiating, and they backed down… From NAFTA to the Central American Free Trade Agreement to normalizing trade relations with China to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, I’ve fought against bad deal after bad deal, negotiated by presidents of both parties, on behalf of Ohio workers. That will never change.”
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The Business Journal: U.S. Sen Brown on Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 Act
Sherrod Brown: “The first rule is there should be workers at the table negotiating these [trade deals]. And they need to have strong worker standards, they need to have buy America provisions, they need to put workers first.”
WFMJ: Senator Brown meets with union workers, opposes trade deals that would compete with Ohio manufactures
- On Wednesday, Senator Brown met with steel union workers in Warren to back two bills he’s introduced, the Fight Trade Cheats Act and the Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 bill. Both oppose free trade deals that Brown says would hurt Valley workers.
- Senator Brown feels the US can’t let other countries import and sell products that undercut American made products – hurting workers and manufactures. “For too long people in the valley have seen presidents or lobbyists sell them out and these jobs are shut down,” Senator Brown said.
- “This isn’t him sweeping in and trying to cultivate support with those audiences for the first time. He’s made a career out of supporting labor unions and supporting those kinds of issues in the past,” Dr. J. Cherie Strachan, professor and Director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron said.
- “My job, always, is to help make sure that workers are represented,” Senator Brown said. “I do that in campaign years, I do that in non campaign years.”
WKBN: Ohio senator visits union workers, talks trade deals
- Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown visited the Steelworkers Union Hall in Warren on Wednesday to talk trade deals.
- Brown doesn’t want the country to agree to trade deals without strong and enforceable labor standards and unions represented at the negotiating table. He intends to do so by passing his “Leveling the Playing Field 2.0” act, creating enforceable trade and environmental standards.
- “I want us to engage with these other countries. I want a better relationship. I want to sell U.S. Products there and have them sell products here. But I want to do it with workers at the table negotiating,” Brown said.
The Business Journal: Brown Calls for Trade Reforms that Protect American Workers
- “Instead of negotiating new trade agreements, we should be focusing on trade enforcement to create a level playing field so that American workers can compete,” the senator said.
- Recently, Brown was influential in convincing other colleagues in the U.S. Senate to oppose trade provisions in the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. The pushback was instrumental in forcing the administration to remove the trade language.
- “The Mahoning Valley is experiencing a generational opportunity to grow its economy through modern, high-tech, advanced manufacturing, warehousing and distribution,” [President and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, Guy] Coviello said. “We can’t let an unlevel global playing field impede that growth. Sen. Brown’s Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 and Fighting Trade Cheats Act would protect the Valley’s industrial base and allow us to more fully grow our economy.”
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