by Joe Tarr
Ever wonder who ends up taking all those jobs that companies move from the United States to foreign lands because of the cheaper wages?
Several Knoxville labor and activist groups are trying to connect workers across borders and show how the so-called global marketplace is affecting workers, through a teach-in this weekend.
"We want to talk about how workers are being affected by globalization, both here and in other countries," says Cheryl Brown of Tennessee Industrial Renewal Network, a co-sponsor. "Just to give a global picture of how this is happening and who is benefiting. The jobs being created in other countries aren't good jobs."
All of the weekend's events are at the University Center at the University of Tennessee. They kick off on Friday, March 3, at 6 p.m. with a talk by Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO. There will be a series of workshops and panel discussions Saturday, starting with "Workers Affected by Globalization: Faces of the Global Economy." This panel discussion will feature Alfredo Dominguez Araujo, former secretary general of Frente Autentico del Trabajo, an independent Mexican union, and Barbara Knight, chair of the TIRN.
Later that day, there will be sessions on organizing in the global economy, women at work, labor policies at the university, Latino workers speaking out, anti-labor bias in the media, and sweatshops.
For more information, contact Alliance for Hope, a UT student economic justice group, at 546-6721.
March 2, 2000 * Vol. 10, No. 9
© 2000 Metro Pulse
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