I am not sure why a regular would feel the need to be anon on this.

Actually, bhsc is, I believe, on the right track. For years I have beat my head against the wall with trying to educate the public on the issue of Walmart and the product it gets from companies using essentially slave labor. In China there is evidence of prison labor being used. In parts of the Asian sub continent there is a ton of evidence for child labor and sweat shops. Even in the US we find this increasing. Our southern neighbors continue to have very weak worker protection. I believe that the draw of cheap prices is just too hard to overcome for average folks trying to feed and clothe their kids, to effectively get them to boycott those corporate entities that market to them. And I further believe that we cannot dictate to a sovereign nation what their laws have to be. But we can tie access to our markets to those labor standards and to environmental standards. For those countries that have rough parity in the key areas of workers rights, worker safety, and environmental compliance, we could have very few tariffs. In each of those areas, based on the laws of the land in those countries, we could enforce tariffs that would encourage them to compete on a fairer basis. I also believe that if said country is subsidizing their industry, that should be reflected as well. This would have the effect of levelling the playing field. Seems to me that this is what we need.

It is critical, in my opinion, for the Unions of the world to understand that this is not a national crisis. It is a world wide crisis. We (unions and their members) must cease to see ourselves as aligned with parties, and hold ourselves to rigid standards based on the values we hold dear. I am sick to death of getting a ton of attention during the election cycle, and once it is over, it's hard to get a call answered. Time for a much more radical, and independent, course of action.

All the best,

Mick