Wall Street Journal - April 11, 2000
Organized Labor Reaches Out To Win Over Global Economy By GLENN BURKINS Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WASHINGTON -- Can organized labor embrace the global economy yet still oppose free trade?
Increasingly, union leaders are looking for ways to do both. In recent months, the AFL-CIO has: taken up the world-wide fight against AIDS, joined the chorus of groups demanding debt relief for developing countries and is now looking for ways to help workers in developing countries connect to the Internet.
In another high-profile effort, union leaders are demanding that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund be reformed. Labor unions hope to vent some of their frustrations with the two groups by attracting as many as 15,000 protesters to Washington this week, where the World Bank and IMF are scheduled to hold a meeting of finance ministers.
Labor unions said the two world-finance bodies have hurt workers globally by demanding that poor nations build their economies solely on exports instead of focusing on expanding domestic markets.
"To say we are in solidarity with workers around the world isn't enough," says Jerry Shea, an assistant to AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney. "We have to do something about it."
Labor's critics aren't impressed. Some accuse the unions of gross hypocrisy.
"As long as they are marching to oppose free trade, it kind of stretches credulity for them to talk about freedom" for foreign workers, said U.S. Chamber of Commerce spokesman Frank Coleman, echoing other business groups.
The debate is sure to grow louder as the two sides battle over President Clinton's China trade policy. Mr. Clinton wants to establish normal trade relations with Beijing while allowing the huge communist country to join the prestigious World Trade Organization. Congressional Republicans have promised a vote on the president's plan during the week of May 22.
As for labor, union leaders insist that it isn't free trade they oppose, but trade policies that exploit cheap labor abroad, often at the expense of U.S. workers.
"There's no turning back the clock on the global economy," Mr. Shea said. "But we don't see any reason why you can't create a rules-based global economy."
For taking that stand, labor has paid a price. Mr. Sweeney, the AFL-CIO chief, said some foreign governments are suspicious of labor's motives, suspecting the American unions are out simply to protect their own workers' jobs.
Mr. Sweeney said this distrust came through loud and clear last fall when he met with foreign labor ministers during the ill-fated World Trade Organization Conference in Seattle. "It became clear to me that there was a lack of trust," he said, "and that we had to do something about it."
Thus, the AFL-CIO is putting more emphasis on international issues, and not just those that directly affecting American unionists.
On Sunday, for example, Mr. Sweeney joined several thousand activists who gathered in Washington to demand international debt relief for developing nations that embrace democracy. He also traveled to South Africa recently to address the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
In the seaside town of Durban, Mr. Sweeney borrowed the words of Benjamin Franklin in calling for stronger ties between U.S. unions and their foreign counterparts. "We will either hang together," he told the crowd, "or we will surely hang separately."
In the New Economy, Mr. Sweeney said, labor must adapt or suffer. Perhaps the most striking example of labor's new adaptation occurred last winter when the AFL-CIO voted to revise its longstanding immigration policy by calling for a blanket amnesty for the estimated five million undocumented workers in the U.S. Previously, the labor group was pushing for tougher sanctions for employers that hired illegal aliens.
For years, labor had opposed such suggestions, fearing a flood of legalized immigrants would drive down U.S. wages. With union ranks now swelling with immigrants -- many undocumented -- union leaders are pushing for what they say is a more progressive approach.
Overseas, U.S. unions can now be found working side by side with the International Labor Organization to remove underage children from garment factories and coffee fields. The AFL-CIO has begun lobbying for increased international aid for developing economies.
The Communications Workers of America, meanwhile, is looking for ways to make the Internet more accessible for poor workers abroad. And the AFL-CIO recently funded a program for South African unions to educate their members about AIDS. Mr. Shea acknowledged that U.S. unions haven't always involved themselves in projects such as these, though American unions have supported foreign workers in a variety of causes, including support for Poland's shipyard workers during the Solidarity uprising. "We often had the right policy positions, but we haven't worked hard enough on them," he said. "If we get our unions to put their shoulders to the wheel on some of this stuff, it could make a big difference."
Labor's critics, however, insist that union leaders are still on the wrong side of trade. Not only does labor oppose Mr. Clinton's China trade proposal, it also has set itself against a similar plan that would encourage greater trade with some of the poorest countries in Africa. Labor officials said the Africa trade proposal doesn't include core labor standards and is opposed by many Africa unions.
Michael Baroody, senior vice president at the National Association of Manufacturers, said labor's aversion to free trade "starts from a premise that our workers can't compete with workers around the world," a premise he said is "wrong."
Mr. Sweeney sees it differently. American workers can compete, he said, so long as the playing field is level. And in his South Africa speech, he attacked Western employers who "know the price of everything and the value of nothing."
Mr. Sweeney said other unions around the globe support what the AFL-CIO is doing. But labor's biggest challenge, he said, is convincing foreign governments that U.S. unions are sincere in their push for international labor standards.
"I think they need our help more than we need theirs," he said. "But we need to show them we are as supportive of them as we are for developed countries."