Oregon Public Broadcasting

Union members rallied outside the Blue Heron paper mill in Oregon City Tuesday. As Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, they say trade agreements are compounding the state's unemployment problems.

Protesters carried signs saying 'Stop Off-Shoring Oregon Jobs,' 'No More NAFTAs,' and 'Oregon Needs Jobs.' They targeted Blue Heron because the company recently laid off about 40 workers.

Union organizer, Gregory Pallesen, says workers can get help from the government to retrain, but most of them won't.

Gregory Pallesen: "We hear a lot about green jobs. This mill is 100 percent recycle. I mean to us thats to us, green in nature, and yet it's struggling.  We know of no one that's gone on to schooling and gone on to a better job that's paid as well with medical benefits, pension, whatever."

At the rally, organizers released a study showing about 10,000 Oregonians lost their jobs to overseas trade over the last year -- that's about a quarter of all the jobs lost during that time in Oregon.

Unions are trying to generate support for a congressional trade act which would set new standards for future trade agreements.