PRESS CONFERENCE OF THE
U.S. SECRETARY OF LABOR ELAINE M. CHAO

Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Four Points Hotel
Montevideo

(begin unofficial transcript)

Opening Remarks by Secretary Chao: Well, thank you very much for being here. It’s wonderful to be back in Montevideo. I was here in March 1st, 2005, leading the President’s delegation to the inauguration of newly elected president Vázquez. So it’s been more than two years and I always remember my visit here to Uruguay and the wonderful reception that we received and the warmth of the Uruguayan people. The United States and Uruguay have a very good and positive relationship.

Two of my Cabinet colleagues, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Commerce have come to visit Uruguay, just within the last two months.

And of course, President Bush himself came to this country and he enjoyed so much his visit with the Uruguayan people. The President has very warm feelings about his visit here and he also has a warm relationship with President Vázquez. So, on behalf of President Bush, I want to thank the Uruguayan people once again for your warm welcome and great reception of President Bush.

I just came from Argentina to attend the inaugural ceremony for the new President of Argentina and the Ambassador very kindly asked me to stop in Montevideo, and of course, I could not return to the United States without a stopover here. So I’m looking forward to meeting with leaders in the business sector, in the labor sector, the labor community, with government officials and to get an update of what is happening in our beautiful country.

And one of the things that we are discussing is how to increase employment because our two countries have many issues of mutual concern. We are concerned of course about employment, about creating opportunity, we both face aging work forces and we want to make sure that our people are taken care of.

Our countries share a commitment to democracy and transparency and respect for the rule of law and of course the value of education. Uruguay is a valued partner and it plays a very vital role in this region in terms of a stable democracy so I am looking forward to know about some of the issues of employment, the concerns of the skills gap and how we can work together.

And the decision of your government to open markets, embrace technology and encourage Uruguayan workers that to invest in themselves will help increase economic opportunity and insure that the benefits of democracy are shared by all.

So, it’s wonderful to be back, in your beautiful country and to be in Montevideo and it’s a true pleasure to see all of you. I might also add in Washington D.C. it’s 24 degrees (Fahrenheit).

José Sena, Channel 10: [Translation] You are going to meet with the Minister of Labor and with business chambers to discuss employment. Are you planning to meet with the Board of Labor Unions?

Secretary Chao: I will see them tonight. So it will be a visit with all segments of the community.

José Sena, Channel 10: [Translation] What topics will you discuss with them?

Secretary Chao: I think I’m here to learn and share experiences. We all live in such different environments and I think as we are all neighbors, we need to understand each other better. And we will share our experiences about job creation and employment in the United States and we look forward to what is happening in Uruguay. Our work force is about a 150.000.000 million people and last Friday, which is the first Friday of every month we release the employment numbers of my department. So, the unemployment rate in November was 4.7 % and about 94.000 new jobs were created last month. This is about the 54th straight month of job creation. So, our job creation for the last 51 months has been about 8.400.000.000 million new jobs. But the interesting question is that most of these new jobs created require higher skills, more education, so our challenge is to close the skills gap. So we look forward to exchange information and lean from one another.

Gonzalo Lasarte, Channel 12: [Translation] Good afternoon, our country is still debating on how to solve employment in factories, industries that have been occupied by workers who ask for better salaries. In addition, there has been advancement in terms of legislation on Salary Councils which is what rules postures between businessmen and workers. How does this work in the United States?

Secretary Chao: You know that every country has to craft their own solution because unless the solution comes from the people, it is not sustainable in the long term, so each country has to craft their own policies. In the United States we do not have the Salary Councils, we negotiate collective bargaining agreements on individual company by company basis and most of the time we prefer that the two sides come to an agreement themselves rather than having imposition of a solution from the outside because they believe that if two parties, management-labor are left to themselves to negotiate and come to an agreement, that agreement will be more sustainable, more long term. Of course, when there are problems then facilitators, mediators can be introduced at that time, but we try to have both sides come to an understanding by themselves first.

Leonardo Luzzi, Voice of America: [Translation] Uruguay and the United States have a TIFA and also an agreement on protection of investments. Although it is not your specific area, I would like to know your opinion as a member of the government. Do you think that Uruguay and the United States will be able to go into a more substantial agreement or the commercial relations will stay as they are?

Secretary Chao: TIFA is very important and it is good start for Uruguay and the United States. The United States wants to make TIFA a success, so let’s work on that and see how it works. The Ambassador wants to say a few words.

Ambassador Baxter: I think we have had a great deal of success with the TIFA, we had a very successful meeting last Monday and we are having a more substantial meeting in Washington scheduled for the end of next semester, so there is a lot to be done there and we are both committed to increasing our trade. We have already had some accomplishments such as “arándanos”, and currently we are working on boneless lamb and citrus.

La Diaria: [Translation] My question is connected to the previous one. I apologize if the introduction is a little long. In the conversations under the TIFA, the United States proposed the format of the Free Trade Agreement in the specific areas of services and governmental purchases, which are very much related to employment issues. My question is how the US and Uruguayan workers would benefit from a Free Trade Agreement in these areas. This is the first question. The second is whether a Free Trade Agreement Treaty would be possible if the government does not have a majority in the Congress.

Secretary Chao: There are two ways to answer that question. First of all free and fair trade is very important for the mutual benefit of both countries. Throughout history free and fair trade has proved to be very beneficial in lifting the status of living for the people who engage in it. Because we are all concerned about poverty alleviation. You care about people here, we care about people in America. We care about people all over the world. And again, free and open trade benefit the people who engage in trade and lifts more people out of poverty than in an isolated and closed off country.

So for American workers there will be some who will be hurt but we have programs to help the American workers. For example we have something called the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program.

Many people don´t think that America´s social safety is very rich, but I am going to tell you what workers affected receive depending on the state. Depending on the state, the federal government will give one hundred and four weeks of unemployment insurance. A hundred and four weeks of training, a hundred and four weeks of direct income assistance such as child care, transportation, and relocation expenses. Sixty five percent of their health care is also taken care of. And if over the age of fifty they get a new job which pays less than the old job, the government will pay fifty percent of the differential. The best benefit for a worker is a new job and the trade investment will create new jobs and this is what we have to focus on.

About your question about the Congress. I think that the new majority in the Congress is probably less open than the previous majority. And so that is a factor to be considered when we talk about this issue. But in summary, free and fair trade is mutually beneficial to both countries and it will lift more people out of poverty and into a better income.

Daily La República: [Translation] During the last period, the Bush administration has been particularly hard with Latin American immigrants and immigrants from other parts of the world and my question is how has this administration dealt with the jobs and that most of those people go the US looking for new jobs and find low level jobs, not well paid, how have they dealt with this issue and how will they deal with it from now on?

Secretary Chao: First of all, President Bush worked very hard to try to enact Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Unfortunately, he was not successful. He is now trying to implement certain aspects of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform through a …administrative reform

But the larger issue is how this country, the originating country, can create more opportunities for their own people because it must be very hard to lose a country’s sons and daughters to another country. So I think that everybody is concerned about migration but the key issue is how we create more opportunity for people in the originating country so that they don’t have leave their own country. I also want to put to rest any concern that America is not welcoming immigrants. I am obviously an American of Chinese descent and I came to America when I was eight years old, I didn’t speak English. America is wonderfully open, I think the current debate is the concern about the control of America’s borders. America is a law abiding country and the fact that some of these immigrants came illegally, that I think is the issue. I also want to say, people regardless of status when they come to the United States, they are protected under worker safety laws, they are protected under right compensation laws. So in terms of labor laws, the status of the worker is irrelevant and we will protect all workers.

Radio Sodre: [Translation] My question is related to your mention that unemployment in the United States has consecutively been going down during the past fifty tour months. This means four and a half years. Could you specify in which areas this decrease has been reflected?

Secretary Chao: America´s economy is huge. The important gain is at a large range of sectors which is again one of the strengths of the American economy. America needs workers in health care, because our population is aging. There has also been tremendous demand for workers in education, new technology, geo-space- technology. These are very high skilled jobs and we need to invest in our work force, in training and re-training opportunities.

(end transcript)

 
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