10 a.m. Tuesday, December 11, 2001, in McAllen
UFW leaders, activists confront Hinojosa for ‘abandoning working family constituents’
United Farm Workers leaders and members on Tuesday morning will protest outside the McAllen office of U.S. Rep Ruben Hinojosa (D-Texas) over his support last week for new trade authority legislation sponsored by the Bush administration and congressional Republicans.
By backing the trade bill, H.R. 3005 by California Republican Rep. Bill Thomas, the McAllen Democrat "abandoned his working family constituents, many of whom supported him in his most recent election," says UFW National Vice President Juanita Valdex-Cox, who is also Texas regional manager for the Cesar Chavez-founded union.
"Those of us who live along the border in the Rio Grande Valley have suffered under NAFTA," the North American Free Trade Agreement, Valdex-Cox notes. She scored Hinojosa for voting in favor of opening up trade relations with China as well as Central and South America.
The UFW "is a union of immigrants, many of whom come from Mexico and Central America," she says. "We firmly believe free trade has nothing to do with economic stability of the workers in those nations. They continue to live lives of crushing poverty."
Trade proposals such as those Hinojosa has supported "are about a rush to the bottom. They have been an economic windfall for wealthy corporations that have transferred plants from the U.S. to other countries so they can exploit the labor of working people there."
Who: Twenty UFW leaders and activists.
What: Protesting Rep. Ruben Hinojosa’s support for anti-worker trade legislation.
When: 10 a.m., Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2001.
Where: Rep. Hinojosa’s district office, 311 N. 15th street (cross street: Beach), in McAllen.
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