By Doug Cunningham

The Change To Win labor federation says the Peru and Panama trade deal with some labor protections House Democratic leaders reached with the Bush administration amounts to a minor tune-up when a major overhaul for workers is needed. Change To Win’s Yvette Pena Lopez says Democrats didn’t cooperate closely with labor on this deal with Bush.

[Pena Lopez]: “We were completely blindsided when the press conference happened. And the Democrats, the Democratic leadership, stood together and announced this quote, unquote great deal for the American worker. If it really was a great deal, then we should have been able to stand right next to them and hold hands and say, yes, this is a great deal finally, the day has come. And unfortunately that’s not where we’re finding ourselves.”

Pena Lopez says Change To Win unions oppose it and the trade deal probably won’t get a majority of Democratic votes in the House either. Trade policies have cost U.S. workers millions of jobs and Change To Win says this deal reached by Democratic leaders and Bush is not nearly enough to fix U.S. trade policy.

[Pena Lopez 2]: “Congress should pause and step back for a moment before pushing forward these trade agreements and really do something about our skyrocketing trade deficit.”