How Trade Helps Public Sector Unions

It’s not surprising that many labor organizations oppose trade liberalization. After all, while reducing tarriff barriers can benefit their membership as consumers, they can also threaten to expose their members to more foreign competition. This competition, in turn, can lead to accelerated job loses in certain sectors. And, promoting job security is job one for labor.

What is surprising, however, is how public sector labor organizations like AFSCME or SEIU line up unquestioningly with their labor comrades in opposing pacts like NAFTA and CAFTA. After all, bringing down tariffs on imported sugar, steel or textiles is not going to threaten the jobs of cops, nurses, firefighters, building inspectors, bus drivers or most other city or county employees. These types of jobs are remarkably resistant to outsourcing or to competitive threats from abroad.

Moreover, expanded trade can actually lead to marked job increases and opportunities in the government sector. As one of the few policy tools that can reliably benefit broad masses of the public, trade expands the nation’s overall wealth. And, a wealthier nation tends to mean more public sector jobs.

While politicians and pundits across the spectrum debate the merits of public services, government spending as a percentage of GDP has tended to remain fairly constant. So, when GDP grows, the public sector grows with along with it. Thus, with economic growth, government becomes a type of growth industry itself, riding on the productivity gains made in other, more dynamic sectors.

For this reason, it is senseless for an organization that represents public employees to oppose trade expansion. It works directly against the long term interests of its members. Why would they do this? I can only guess that it comes down to some kind of labor “solidarity”, or the desire to help other unions even when its works against one’s own members and is not reciprocated. Or, the opposition is part of a deeply rooted and erroneous populist dogma which holds that only “corporations” benefit from trade. Either way, the members of these public sector unions are being very poorly served by their anti-trade leaders. It’s time for the rank and file to start speaking truth to power.