As U.S. OKs New Trade Deals, Salvadoran Workers Fight Their Fall-Out http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=879&Itemid=1

Legal maneuvering and union-busting threaten to crush the organizing that’s unified workers across transnational companies in El Salvador. But Salvadoran unions and their allies are fighting to protect their fragile gains.Hundreds rallied Monday outside the offices of the Supreme Court, including members of the Telecommunications Industrial Union and the AVX Factory Workers’ Union. The transnational companies are attacking these two leading private sector unions, harassing and firing union members and appealing to a corrupt legal system to strip the unions’ legal standing.

Free Trade’s Not So Free: The Panamanian Case http://www.coha.org/free-trade’s-not-so-free-the-panamanian-case/

The FTA also opens Panama’s service and financial sectors to local U.S. investment firms and corporations. In contrast to the apparent advantages the U.S. will now receive, Panama is scheduled to obtain limited benefits from the FTA other than those derived from its small agricultural export sector, the products of which will enter the U.S. free of all excises. Overall, as demonstrated above, Washington is destined to be the primary benefactor from their FTA.

The Wait Is Over: Congress Awards Free Trade Agreements, Ignoring Workers’ Plight http://www.coha.org/the-wait-is-over-congress-awards-free-trade-agreements-ignoring-the-benefits-of-workers/