NEWS - US Unions Warn WTO They May

[TheTruth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: NEWS - US Unions Warn WTO They May Block Imports From Labor Abusers

NOTE: Just as Australian Ports did to block East Timor/ Indonesian
imports so should the U.S. and the world do to labor abusers such as
Burma/ Myanmar.


US Unions Warn WTO They May Block Imports From Labor Abusers

  
Washington, Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S.'s top labor leader warned
that
if the World Trade Organization fails to punish nations that abuse
workers,
unions will step up their campaign to block U.S. imports from the most
flagrant violators. 

John Sweeney, head of the AFL-CIO union umbrella group, said labor will
press U.S. states and cities to halt purchases from nations that flout
workers' rights and harm the environment. 

``If the WTO will not enforce workers' rights and environmental
protection,
then national and local governments must act to do so,'' said Sweeney.
``Let
the WTO explain to citizens why they cannot boycott companies producing
goods with child labor in Honduras, or slave labor in Burma, or workers
who
are locked up when they try to organize a union in China.'' 

Organized labor plans to dispatch thousands of its members to Seattle
later
this month to push the WTO to pay attention to workers' rights. So far,
unions have gotten a commitment from President Bill Clinton to propose a
``working group'' to study labor issues at the Seattle meeting, where
trade
ministers from the WTO's 135 member countries will try to set the agenda
for
a new round of trade talks. 

And today, 113 Democrats from the House of Representatives sent Clinton
a
letter calling for the ``renegotiation'' of WTO agreements to
``explicitly
enable'' the U.S. and other countries to prohibit imports made with
child
and forced labor. 

Lobbying the Locals 

Sweeney, who laid out labor concerns about the WTO at the National Press
Club and in an interview with the Bloomberg Forum, drew fire from some
unions with the AFL-CIO's recent decision to endorse Vice President Al
Gore
for president. 

Gore is a free trader, who supports the WTO and China's bid to enter the
organization, which Sweeney opposes. Even though Sweeney was heavily
criticized for the endorsement, he said the labor organization isn't
reconsidering the move. 

Instead, he said he wants the WTO to make labor rights abuse a global
offense subject to retaliation by trading partners. 

His campaign, which isn't yet under way, would entail union lobbying of
city
councils and state legislatures to restrict procurement of goods that
may
have been made by child or forced labor. That could add leverage to
labor
concerns at the WTO. 

``They can certainly try,'' Craig Johnstone, the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce's
senior vice president for economic, political and national security
affairs,
said of Sweeney's strategy. ``I think they would be taken to court, and
I
don't think they'd be upheld anywhere.'' 

Dozens of Laws 

The U.S. has more than 30 city, state and county laws restricting
government
purchases from companies doing business in particular countries. 

Selective-purchase laws have prompted some U.S. companies, including
Apple
Computer Inc. and Eastman Kodak Co., to withdraw from Myanmar, formerly
known as Burma. The laws were designed to pressure Myanmar to improve
its
human rights record. 

The issue may come to a head soon at the U.S. Supreme Court. 

The court will decide as early as Nov. 29 -- the day before the WTO
meetings
begin -- whether to hear a case regarding the constitutionality of a
Massachusetts law that bars state purchases from companies that do
business
in Myanmar. 

The National Foreign Trade Council, a group of companies that opposes
reliance on sanctions for foreign policy, sued the state, which lost the
case and an appeal to the First U.S. Circuit court of Appeals in Boston.
The
appeals court said the state's 1996 selective purchasing law usurped the
federal government's foreign policy authority. 

The European Union and Japan have asked the WTO to decide whether the
Massachusetts law is barred by global trade rules, although the case has
been on hold while the U.S. courts determine whether it violates the
U.S.
constitution, too. 

Nov/19/1999   18:43