CSEA retiree activists are urging people to contact their congressional representatives and urge them to vote against an international trade agreement that could not only cause prescription drug costs to skyrocket, but jeopardize middle class American jobs.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a free-trade deal between the United States, Canada and 11 nations in the Asia-Pacific region that would eliminate tariffs on goods and services and end other barriers. These countries comprise about 40 percent of the world’s economy.
“The Trans Pacific Partnership legislation will likely lead to taking jobs out of the United States and create rising medical and drug costs for each of us,” CSEA Retiree Executive Committee Chair Judy Richards said. “Many may feel it is something that won’t hurt us. That couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Hard pill to swallow
The proposed agreement contains provisions that could jeopardize your ability to get prescription drugs at affordable prices, including blocking patent reforms and jeopardizing the government’s ability to list and price prescription drugs in public programs, including Medicaid and Medicare.
The deal would give major pharmaceutical companies a strong level of protection against cheaper generic drugs, including allowing pharmaceutical companies to extend their monopolies on lifesaving drugs, which would prevent or delay the development of more affordable generic drugs.
Jobs at stake
The deal could also jeopardize millions of good, middle class
American jobs, which could be sent to other countries in which workers would be subject to poverty-level wages and dangerous working conditions.
Public services would also suffer, as job losses will ultimately lead to lower tax revenue and a reduced ability for public entities to provide vital services such as those that many of your CSEA brothers and sisters provide. The partnership could also open the doors to increased privatization of public services.
What you can do
“We are asking you to write letters to your representatives,” Richards said. “We need to put the pressure on our Washington leadership and demand that they do not support this bill. This trade deal will hurt retirees as well as all Americans. We can’t afford the higher pharmaceutical costs or job losses this deal will likely bring.”
Sample letter for your representatives
Date
Dear Representative/Senator:
I am writing to ask that you vote against the passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). This agreement will only benefit large, multi-national corporations and will do nothing to grow and strengthen the middle class in the United States.
Free trade agreements have resulted in lost jobs, stagnant wages, increased inequality and other negative consequences for workers. Twenty years after the passage of NAFTA, the Economic Policy Institute estimated that almost 700,000 U.S. jobs had been lost as a direct result of the agreement. The TPP will continue these job losses by making it even easier for corporations to outsource American jobs to low wage countries.
Not only will America lose jobs, but the TPP will push wages down by making American workers compete with labor from countries such as Vietnam, who make less than 65 cents an hour. This will serve to encourage companies to either demand large wage concessions from American employees or to ship the jobs overseas. In both scenarios, Americans lose because of the TPP.
Lastly, the TPP will raise the costs of prescription drugs for all Americans. Under this trade agreement, pharmaceutical companies will be given new monopoly rights. This will allow them to keep lower priced generic drugs off the market for longer periods of time and require Americans to pay more and more for life saving medications.
This agreement does not help the American people and I am asking you to oppose it.
Sincerely,
