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.
Victor Pierce
Portland, OR
Victor worked at the Freightliner Truck Plant in Portland, Oregon for 15 years before losing his job in February 2009 as the company continued shifting production to Mexico under NAFTA.
Hear part of Victor's story...
“A couple years ago they took the manufacturing of the Freightliner trucks and offshored the manufacturing to Mexico, and we lost a huge percentage of work and employment from that. But we hoped that they would never come to this point and close the main plant, where it all started. It really hurts. It hurts Oregon. It hurts the whole structure of [the state’s] economics. And it hurts the families and people who were working and depending on that for sustenance and a quality of life that we’ve had ever since Freightliner started…
“Politicians who support NAFTA may have at one time been ignorant in a lot of ways as to what was being presented to them and why. The policies were generally driven by companies and corporations, and then presented to elected officials. I guess anybody can get stoked one way or another.
“Now we have to come to a place and say, 'Are those elected officials putting blinders on in continuing to work for the big corporations, or are they coming to an understanding that change needs to happen?'
“The most important thing I want people to know is that we have been silent for too long. Companies have been carrying their end, and working with everything in their means, to bring us to the economic state we’re in today. What we need to do is rally and work just as hard for our cause and our families.
“Maybe we can stop some of this from affecting not only our lives, but our children’s lives. We’ve got to turn this around. We’ve got to turn it around not only for America, but for the world, because this isn’t just an American thing, it’s a world thing. Big business and its ideals are the same all over the world. They’re not looking to help the people or the workers or the laborers. Blue-collar, white-collar, if we don’t start to help ourselves then the spiral is just going to keep going downhill and it’s going to get worse.”