Patrick Kennedy: “I went into the maquiladora section. I went to several maquiladora sections. I went in unannounced to factories and…”

“I went into the maquiladora section. I went to several maquiladora sections. I went in unannounced to factories and introduced myself to the workers. Most of the workers were women, most of them were 14 and 15 years old. Most of them, I would say 90 percent of them, worked six days a week, and at the end of the week they had $47 to take home. I went to neighborhood after neighborhood, and all I saw were mud floors. No indoor plumbing. So I say to myself, it is fine to talk about this global economy and the need for trade, but the fact of the matter is, as Martin Luther King said, we are all going to be affected by the same web of mutuality. If we do not insist on standards for our brothers and sisters in Mexico, believe me, we are the next ones on the chopping blocks. In my state of Rhode Island, we have already seen our workers lose jobs and benefits because of the depressing aspect that NAFTA has had on our workers' conditions here in this country. Vote no on fast track authority.”