Labor union's arguments against FTAs and BITs don’t square with the facts, but are they at least representing fairly the seven and a half percent of private sector workers who are their members? Let’s look at a few unions.

The SEIU has opposed every trade agreement you can name. Their two million members are divided about evenly between health care and public sector workers. As far as we can tell, none of these jobs are endangered by trade. Nurses, bus drivers, and government workers don’t face competition from "imports" in any way, shape, or form.

Because trade means lower prices and more choices for American families, these SEIU members all benefit from trade to the tune of about $9,000 per year, according to a widely cited study from the Peterson Institute for International Economics. So how can it possibly make sense for the SEIU to rail against trade when it brings nothing but benefits to its members?

Or look at the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which dominates West Coast ports. These longshoremen’s jobs are 100% dependent on trade. They are also the highest-paid blue-collar workers in America, with average full-time wages for fully registered workers topping $136,000! And yet they’ve opposed every trade deal you can think of!

Finally, the United Steelworkers represents about 700,000 workers. The union was very involved earlier this year in the push for "Buy American" mandates in the economic stimulus package. 

Now, the U.S. Chamber has long advocated a "Buy American, Sell American" strategy. Because many U.S.-made goods and services are the best in the world, we don’t just want Americans to buy them—we want to sell them to the 95% of the world’s consumers who live outside the United States, too. While "Buy American" mandates may sound attractive, they generate red tape that delays "shovel ready" projects and risks triggering retaliation by our trading partners. What we’re seeing now is that "Buy American" rules aren’t creating American jobs—they’re destroying them.

Duferco Farrell Corporation until recently employed 600 United Steel Workers at its plant near Pittsburgh. Duferco manufactures coils at its Pennsylvania plant using imported steel slabs that generally aren’t sold commercially in the United States. Thanks in part to "Buy American" rules, Duferco had to furlough 80 percent of its workforce. The USW lobbied hard for "Buy American" rules—but those very rules have now cost the jobs of the union’s own members.

These unions claim to speak for working Americans. But again and again, we see the unions fighting trade when jobs depend on it… fighting trade when doing so will actually destroy jobs.