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.

Bob Faust

Nyssa, OR

Bob worked as a maintenance mechanic at the Amalgamated Sugar processing plant in Eastern Oregon, until he lost his job in competition to increased imports.

“It's hard for me to put into words what it feels like to be told you no longer have a job. The fellow employees I would run into when I was in town getting groceries were feeling the same way I was. Total shock and disbelief. Not necessarily, 'What am I going to do in the future?' It was more like, 'I've lost my best friend.' ...

"We took care of each other. If a person had a major sickness and a person ran out of sick leave, we would donate sick leave to that person so that they could keep getting sick leave benefits, and we'd put a donation box to collect donations.

"We have an employee benefit fund. I don't know how many employees donated into that fund, but if any individual had a major crisis within their family, we pitched in and did what we could to help that person out.

"On our jobs, if a person was working on a particular item that he was struggling with, and your partner was elsewhere and he saw you struggling with it, he'd jump in and help you out. Even if it wasn't your partner, and you were struggling with something. You would pitch in and get the job done. We took pride in our work and our jobs. We took pride in helping one another to get the job done...

"I haven't personally seen where other people went for work. I know that the majority of people who are getting jobs aren't making the same pay rate they were making at Amalgamated."