NEA Delegates Say “Never Mind”
On July 4, EIA reported on New Business Item 46, which was to be debated the next day. Only on July 5, it was withdrawn before debate. The item read:
“The NEA will publish a detailed article to inform its membership of the implications directly related to patronizing COSTCO. The article will include information on the ownership of COSTCO, its policies toward human rights and justice and the effects that supporting COSTCO and China’s policies have upon the manufacturing and textile industries in the United States.”
When I first read this, I thought COSTCO was involved in some sweatshop deal with the Chinese. But I laughed out loud when I read the rationale submitted with the new business item, which reads:
“Manufacturing jobs are being lost in the U.S. at a record pace, while the Americans pump billions of dollars every year into the China Overseas Trading Company (COSTCO). China’s use of slave labor grants it an unfair advantage in trade, which should not be supported by citizens.”
This NBI was introduced (and withdrawn) by Kathleen Flaherty of Connecticut, and it was signed by 50 delegates in order to get it on the convention agenda.
As you’ve probably figured out by now, there is a China Overseas Trading Company, called COTCO, and there is a China Ocean Shipping Company, called COSCO, neither of which is likely to be patronized by NEA members (unless they own a dockyard).
COSTCO is a chain of big-box stores headquartered in Issaquah, Washington. It has nothing to do with COTCO and COSCO.
