“I would have fought harder to get a better deal for American workers under the North American Free Trade Act,” Reich said, prompting a round of applause. “I think that a lot of jobs were lost. A lot of jobs were lost to Mexico and to China, although China is not part of the North American Free Trade Act. But I think that our trade deals, like the deal that’s being cooked up, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, are not helping the poor and working class and a lot of middle class in America.
Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich heard firsthand workplace stories from students Tuesday, Feb. 10, at UC Riverside.
Reich made a brief trip to Inland Southern California to attend a screening of a 2013 documentary about his economic views called “Inequality for All.”
The screening, which was free and open to the public, drew a capacity crowd with a standby line to the University Theatre on campus.
Reich, who served in President Bill Clinton’s first administration, is now a senior fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies at UC Berkeley
He was also in Riverside for the announcement of a partnership of the Blum Center with UCR’s School of Public Policy on an initiative to study local and global poverty.
Reich advocates for wage earners in the film, which traces what Reich calls the decline of the middle class since the 1970s due to such factors as loss of manufacturing jobs, wage stagnation and a tax structure that favors investors over workers.
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