For too long, debates over international trade have been dominated by corporate elites and economic ideologues, rather than rooted in the experiences of ordinary Americans. 

The Trade Stories Project allows people who have been affected by policies and institutions like NAFTA and the WTO to share their views on a matter crucial to the global economy. 

This includes displaced workers, farmers, small business owners and immigrants who have been typically excluded from the trade debate.

Alan Boulier

Dedham, ME

Allan worked for many years in shoe shops and as a pipefitter in mills around the state.  His whole family worked in the shoe shops at one time or another.  He watched many of the shops close and move overseas, and is seeing similar effects on the paper industry in Maine as mills continue to shut down and jobs continue to be lost to trade.   

Hear part of Alan's story...

"Bring jobs back! We ain't building nothing...

"I mean, you sit here and watch the lower jobs go, that's one thing. They say they can't man it. Which, if someone's got the chance to go make money in a paper mill, they'll got to the paper mill. They'll jump ship at the shoe shop. It's easier work, more money. We lost the low paying jobs, that's one thing.

"You've got $20-plus jobs going overseas now.  Where's it going to stop?  

"There's more money in the paper mill industry in Maine than almost any other job, any other business I can think of.  Because when you start putting in the guys cutting trees, start getting your truck drivers involved in it, you got your guys making the paper, you've got the delivery guys that are delivering the stuff, and then us guys up there working construction, keeping these plants running. Not counting the stuff that people have to build, do these renovations. That's a lot of jobs going out the window."