...’Fast-track’ trade provision comes to end
(From Page 1)
has opposed every trade deal bar-
gained under fast track.
So union leaders rejoiced June 30
when fast track expired without being
reauthorized by Congress. It expired
once before — in 1994 — and wasn’t
renewed until 2002. But fast track still
restricts how Congress deals with four
treaties it hasn’t yet approved — the
treaties with Colombia, South Korea,
Peru and Panama.
Union leaders in Washington, D.C.,
were alarmed May 10 when Democ-
ratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and
House Ways and Means Chair Charles
Rangel announced they’d reached a
deal with the White House on trade —
the Bush Administration would work
to add labor and environmental com-
mitments to the Peru and Panama
deals, and the Democrats would work
to pass them.
Teamsters General President
Jimmy Hoffa Jr. called it a sellout. The
Teamsters are an affiliate of the
Change to Win labor federation.
But the details of the compromise
weren’t yet spelled out, and when
Pelosi and Rangel clarified the deal
June 29, it was the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce’s turn to cry betrayal. The
deal Rangel worked out with Bush
went like this: Bush would go back to
the four countries and get them to
amend the treaties by adding labor and
environmental standards as enforce-
able commitments on par with the
treaty commitments to trademark,
patent and other investor protections.
Only then would the Democratic lead-
ership give the treaties a vote. Because
fast track was scheduled to expire
June 30, the Bush Administration
raced to amend the treaties, and was
able to conclude all four in the last
three days of June.
In each case, the countries commit-
ted to abide by five “core” labor stan-
dards of the International Labor Orga-
nization — workers’ freedom of
association and right to bargain collec-
tively, and prohibition of forced labor,
child labor and workplace discrimina-
tion. If the countries fail to live up to
those commitments, the United States
could file a trade complaint, which
would be judged by a three-member
panel, and then could impose punitive
tariffs if the panel agreed. That’s the
same process the treaty has for other
kinds of commercial disputes, like
cases where the trading partner dis-
criminates against foreign companies
or infringes patents or trademarks.
But it still wasn’t enough to win
support for the Korea or Colombia
treaties from Democrats in Congress
or from labor unions.
South Korea’s economy is the
world’s 13th largest — bigger than
Mexico’s — so the Korea-U.S. Free
Trade Agreement would have been the
biggest since NAFTA. And the treaty
didn’t do enough to open South Korea
to U.S. imports, union leaders said.
Thus it would harm U.S. industry, es-
pecially the auto industry. South Ko-
rea and the United States have a heav-
ily one-sided trading relationship:
South Korea exported more than
700,000 cars into the U.S. last year,
while the United States exported
fewer than 5,000 to South Korea. Also
of concern was the possibility that Ko-
rea could be used as a transshipment
point for duty-free export of goods
made in China or North Korea.
“Our battered manufacturing sector
simply cannot withstand another
flawed trade deal,” said AFL-CIO
President John Sweeney in a state-
ment to the press.
The Colombia treaty failed to win
support for other reasons — ongoing
serious human rights violations.
Colombia’s human rights record did-
n’t stop the Bush Administration, but
members of Congress felt uncomfort-
able entering into economic marriage
with the most dangerous country on
earth for union organizers. Last year,
72 Colombian trade union leaders
were assassinated by paramilitary
death squads. Witnesses say the gov-
ernment is involved.
The United Steel Workers —
which helped survivors of murdered
Colombian unionists sue for damages
against U.S.-based multinationals —
is leading the opposition to the
Colombian trade pact and on June 28
testified before Congress about
Colombia.
Peru and Panama aren’t beacons of
workers’ rights, but they’re in a differ-
ent league from Colombia. Rangel in-
tends to lead a bipartisan delegation of
members of Congress to Peru and
Panama this August to press those
countries to improve their labor laws.
The vote on the treaties is expected in
September.
AFL-CIO trade policy specialist
Thea Lee says with the enforceable la-
bor rights provisions added, the Peru
and Panama treaties are actually better
than the 2000 treaty with Jordan,
which the AFL-CIO lauded as a step
in the right direction. But the AFL-
CIO is still debating what stance to
take on the treaties because other
problems remain — like restrictions
on government buy-American man-
dates and the danger that American
agribusiness exports could displace
Peruvian farmers.
The AFL-CIO also questions
whether the Bush Administration
would enforce the labor rights protec-
tions. Still, Lee said, Bush is only in
office for another year and a half, and
a future activist president who wanted
to improve workers’ rights in those
countries would be able to use the
trade agreement to do that.
Lee said the AFL-CIO is unlikely
to endorse the treaties, and will proba-
bly either take no position or else
nominally oppose them. Meanwhile,
Change to Win and its affiliate Team-
sters plan to oppose the two treaties.
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Union rights for
airport screeners
stripped from bill
WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) —
Yielding to a promised veto by
President Bush, congressional De-
mocratic leaders dropped a provi-
sion in a Homeland Security bill
that would have allowed some
45,000 federal airport security
workers to unionize.
The provision was strongly
pushed by government worker
unions after Bush used the legisla-
tion establishing the Homeland Se-
curity Department five years ago to
ban unionization of the airport
screeners on “national security”
grounds.
Bush reiterated that stand in his
veto threat, saying unions are a se-
curity risk. Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.),
anxious to get the 9/11 legislation
passed and force Bush to improve
overall U.S. security, backed down.
The Democratic retreat was part
of an agreement Reid forged with
Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mc-
Connell (R-Kentucky) to appoint
negotiators to hammer out a final
version of the 9/11 bill. Both the
House and Senate versions of the
legislation said the screeners could
unionize.
Reid told his colleagues on July
9 that he and Pelosi had committed
to dropping the collective bargain-
ing provision. He asked for (and
got) unanimous consent from the
Senate.
American Federation of Govern-
ment Employees President John
Gage, whose union has been trying
to organize the screeners, later said,
“the fight is not over.” He added that
the Pelosi-Reid decision “only
makes us more determined to get
rights for workers who were
wrongly denied.”
McConnell, husband of Labor
Secretary Elaine Chao, could not re-
sist crowing. “I am encouraged to
see Republicans were able to ensure
our national security is a higher pri-
ority than special interest provision
for Big Labor,” McConnell said in
a press release.
In a prior statement covering the
Homeland Security Department
money bill, the Office of Manage-
ment and Budget declared: “The
Administration strongly opposes
any attempt to deny the president
authority to manage executive
branch employees when faced with
national security concerns.” That’s
the rationale Bush used against
unionizing the screeners.
The ban covers only federally-
employed screeners, not private
contract screeners. Screeners at five
airports can unionize, including
Pelosi’s home airport in San Fran-
cisco.
Glaziers, Carpenters, Laborers, Electricians, Sheetmetal Workers, Floorcoverers, Bricklayers, Cement Masons, Roofers, Asbestos Workers, Family, Mill Wrights, Painters, Elevators, Plasterers
JULY 20, 2007
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
PAGE 3