Corporations need to stay competitive in the new global economy. But that doesn't mean putting American workers in an unfair race with the lowest-paid, most impoverished workers in the world.

Multinationals are often based in the United States, but they respect no flag and are loyal to no one but their officers and shareholders. Case in point; Nike has been a corporate poster child for tolerating below-subsistence wages and dangerous working conditions for the 500,000 laborers at its contracted production facilities overseas--while selling its prestigious sports and consumer products at top dollar. Chiquita Brands, An American company, has crushed labor unions at company-owned farms in Latin America and formed local front companies to further limit union activities.

That kind of "flexibility" may enhance corporate balance sheets. But it ignores the higher domestic unemployment and lower standard of living that can result while stripping workers, here and abroad, of the bargaining power they need to counterbalance multinational behemoths.

To fight this global corporate agenda, Americans must demand that trade agreements insist on basic worker rights. All workers everywhere--no matter how poor their country--should enjoy:

• The right to associate freely.
• The right to form unions and bargain collectively.
• The end of all forms of coerced, unfree labor--including child labor.
• The end of discrimination in the workplace.
• Acceptable conditions with respect to minimum wages, hours of work and occupational health and safety.

By penalizing countries that try to sell to us while polluting the air and water of workers within their own borders, we should demand that global corporations respect the environment.

As Chrysler workers are finding in Germany and Sprint workers are finding in Mexico, international labor solidarity can protect workers on both sides of a trading relationship.

Reprinted from America@Work - January 1999 by David Kameras.