Sweeney vows AFL-CIO will destroy fast track

[MDOLAN <mdolan@citizen.org>]

  Journal of Commerce
  Tuesday, September 23, 1997
  Sweeney vows AFL-CIO will destroy fast track
  
  Union's right to organize called 'the civil rights issue of the '90s'
  
  The AFL-CIO chief comes out swinging as the union convenes its first meeting 
  since
  he won the presidency, tempered only by the investigation into how the 
  Teamsters
  election was funded.
  
  BY TIM SHORROCK
  JOURNAL OF COMMERCE STAFF
  
  PITTSBURGH -- The AFL-CIO Monday vowed to turn back President Clinton's
  request for new trade negotiating authority and promised to make the right 
  to
  organize unions "the civil rights issue of the 1990s."
  
  "Fast track can be defeated," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who in 
  1995
  won the labor federation's first contested election on a platform to rebuild 
  and
  reform the 12.9 million-member organization.
  
  Last week, Mr. Sweeney unveiled a $1 million advertising campaign against
  "fast-track" authority, which lets Mr. Clinton negotiate new free-trade 
  agreements
  that are then considered by Congress on an up-or-down vote without 
  amendments.
  
  That money, which will be largely aimed at 40 swing votes in the House, is 
  "just the
  beginning" of what will be a massive campaign to educate voters and 
  lawmakers
  about the impact of trade on jobs, labor officials said.
  
  "The battle over fast track is important to every union in this room -- 
  craft, industrial,
  service and public unions alike -- because trade agreements without worker 
  rights
  and human rights and environmental standards undermine the wages and jobs of 
  us
  all just as they damage the communities were we live and work," Mr. Sweeney 
  said
  in a keynote speech Monday at the AFL-CIO's first convention under his
  leadership.
  
  Mr. Sweeney also called for "fundamental reforms" on the campaign finance 
  system
  that would include eliminating unregulated "soft money" contributions to 
  political
  parties that have become a mainstay of union political operations.
  
  "The same rules should apply to us that would apply to corporations as 
  well," he
  said in an interview.
  
  Jerry Jasinowski, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, 
  said the
  labor campaign against fast track raises the stakes for the businesses 
  community.
  
  "I think the legislation is currently up for grabs," he said in a telephone 
  interview.
  "This will be a real battle for ideas of whether trade is good or not for 
  American
  workers." Because trade has contributed one-third of U.S. economic growth 
  over
  the past four years, Mr. Jasinowski said business "has the better argument."
  
  "But you've got to get out in the congressional districts and make that 
  argument
  forcefully," he said.
  
  900 delegates in Pittsburgh
  
  About 900 delegates representing 78 national AFL-CIO unions have gathered in
  this industrial city for the convention. It comes on the heels of the 
  Teamsters' strike
  against United Parcel Service, which is viewed here as labor's biggest 
  victory in
  decades, and at a time when many Americans are questioning the value of free
  trade. A recent poll by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, for example, 
  shows that
  the U.S. public, by a 45%-26% margin, believes the North American Free Trade
  Agreement has had a negative impact on the economy. An even bigger group, 
  66%,
  said Nafta has cost jobs.
  
  "We are winning again and it feels good," said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer
  Richard Trumka in a weekend speech at a labor "teach-in" that brought 
  together
  local academics and union activists.
  
  But the optimism has been tempered by a widening federal investigation into
  financial irregularities in the 1996 Teamsters' election, when President Ron 
  Carey
  defeated James P. Hoffa by a narrow margin. The results of that election 
  were
  overturned last month by a federal administrator and a grand jury in New 
  York is
  now hearing evidence that Mr. Trumka, may have siphoned up to $150,000 into
  Mr. Carey's campaign through a consumer group called Citizen Action.
  
  Mr. Trumka declined at a briefing to comment on the allegations and said the
  investigation would not detract from the convention's work. But Mr. Sweeney 
  took
  on the issue head-on, saying "we're taking this matter very seriously" and 
  flatly
  denying that any AFL-CIO money went into Mr. Carey's campaign.
  
  'No contribution' intended
  
  "No contribution from the AFL-CIO to Citizen Action was intended for any 
  union
  election," Mr. Sweeney said. "As a matter of policy, we never get involved 
  in the
  elections of union affiliates. We hope this gets cleared up as fast as 
  possible."
  
  The campaign against fast track will again put organized labor at odds with 
  the
  Clinton administration and many Democrats. "Fast track will be a litmus test 
  for all
  people in Congress today," said AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda
  Chavez-Thompson.
  
  Despite those differences, however, Mr. Sweeney said the Clinton 
  administration
  remains a "friend of labor," and his aides were urging unions to give an 
  enthusiastic
  welcome to President Clinton when he addresses the convention Wednesday.
  
  The trade issue is a tricky one for Vice President Al Gore, who spoke to an
  organizing convention here on Saturday. He played a major role in the
  administration's fight to pass Nafta and is likely to face Rep. Richard 
  Gephardt,
  D-Mo., a key opponent of fast track, in the race for the Democratic 
  nomination in 2000.
  
  Since Mr. Sweeney took over in 1995, the federation has increased the amount 
  it
  spends on organizing from 5% of its total budget to 30% today. Mr. Gephardt 
  and
  Labor Secretary Alexis Herman address the convention today.
  ===== Comments by MDOLAN@CITIZEN (MDOLAN) at 9/23/97 9:49 am
  
  The AFL-CIO "air war" is underway with Radio and/or TV spots up in the 
  following CD's:
  CO-02, CT-06, FL-05, FL-20, IL-20, MN-06, NJ-12, NY-02, NY-18, OH-14, PA-13, 
  PA-21, VA-05;
  plus Radio throughout California.
  
  We're winning -- over 200 House members currently oppose "fast track" and 
  lately the undecided
  members have been breaking our way, thanks in great measure to the 
  grassroots pressure which
  Fair Trade activists have been putting on their congressional delegations, 
  often by using this toll-free
  number to the capitol switchboard: 1-888-723-5246. 
  
  
  
  ****************************************************************************
   /s/ Mike Dolan, Field Director, Global Trade Watch, Public Citizen
  
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                         WE EDUCATE PEOPLE IN ORDER TO ORGANIZE THEM.
                         WE DON'T ORGANIZE PEOPLE IN ORDER TO EDUCATE THEM.
                                                        Fred Ross, Sr.