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For Immediate Release Contact:
April 4, 2008 Leslie Miller (202) 624-8734
lmiller@
PENN LOBBYING UNDERMINES CLINTON’S TRADE STANCE
Mark Penn, Clinton’s Chief Strategist, Met With Colombian Officials About Trade Deal
(Washington, D.C.) – Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said Friday he is shocked but not surprised that Sen. Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist, Mark Penn, met with Colombian officials about promoting a trade deal with that country.
Clinton said she is against a proposed Colombian Free Trade Agreement. That stance has been severely undermined by the actions of Penn, a highly paid and influential figure in her campaign.
“How can we trust that a President Hillary Clinton would stand strong against this trade deal when her top advisor is being paid by Colombia to promote it?” Hoffa said. “To support this so-called ‘free trade agreement’ is anathema to the labor movement and to anyone who supports working people, social justice or the environment.”
“This has caused us to question Clinton’s stated stances on everything from human rights and environmental issues to very basic labor issues,” Hoffa said.
Friday’s Wall Street Journal reported the story in which two Colombian officials corroborated the meeting with Penn.
“Time and again we’ve heard candidates claim to be on the side of middle-class Americans, but as soon as they’re in office they join forces with the corporate interests who want nothing more than to exploit working people,” Hoffa added
This isn’t the first time Penn has advocated policies that contradict stances taken by Clinton, arguably his most important client. Penn is the chief executive of Burson-Marsteller, an international communications and lobbying firm with a long history of defending and advocating for union busters.
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Page Two of Two/Penn Lobbying Undermines Her Trade Stance
“It speaks volumes of Sen. Clinton when she retains as chief strategist a man who has collaborated in assaults on workers’ rights at companies like Cintas Corp, one of the nation’s worst employers,” Hoffa said.
“Someone like Mark Penn should not be dictating strategy, and possibly legislation, for a Democratic candidate for president,” Hoffa said.
Though all of the trade deals since NAFTA have harmed American workers, the proposed deal with Colombia is especially repugnant to U.S. labor unions. Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world for union members. More than 2,500 union members have been murdered by Colombian death squads since the 1980s. There have been more than 400 murders since President Uribe took office five years ago. Yet the Colombian government has done nothing to effectively stop death squads from murdering workers for trying to form unions.
“American workers are outraged by the very idea of an agreement with Colombia,” Hoffa said. “Workers need trade policies that create jobs. They don’t need more deals that destroy jobs. Voters across the country are making this point increasingly clear every time they go to the polls. America is hemorrhaging jobs because of so-called free trade agreements like the proposed Colombian Free Trade Agreement. They must be stopped.”
Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.
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