Sporting red-and-black UNITE caps, blue UAW jackets, black-and-gold Teamsters banners, green AFSCME T-shirts, red Steelworkers ball caps and the colors of dozens more unions, 15,000 union members filled the West steps of the U.S. Capitol and spilled onto the lawn in an April 12 rally to send a firm message to Congress: "No Blank Check for China!"

"Until there is freedom of speech and freedom of association in China, until there is freedom of religion and freedom to join unions in China, there can be no permanent free trade agreement with China," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney told the cheering crowd.

The noon event—during which nearly a dozen semi-trucks driven by IBT members honked and circled the Capitol—was part of a daylong rally and lobby action during which union members from across the country visited their lawmakers and stood together in solidarity against efforts by Congress to grant permanent Normal Trade Relations (NTR) to China.

Despite China's blatant and ongoing human rights abuses, Congress is expected to vote in late May on a proposal to grant the permanent free trade status to China, which would scrap annual congressional review of that nation's human rights and trade practices and give China permanent access to U.S. markets. Backers of permanent Normal Trade Relations claim opening China to more trade will force that nation to improve its human and workers' rights practices. But a recent U.S. State Department report shows China's rights record continues to deteriorate, despite growing trade with the United States.

Addressing the crowd from the West steps stage, Wei Jingsheng offered a stark reminder of how China treats its workers. For speaking out about how the government abused workers, he spent 18 years in prison, many in solitary confinement, and endured torture and regular beatings.

"When workers in China don't have the right to express themselves and to organize into free trade unions, and are locked into their factories earning $100 a month, workers all over the world, including U.S. workers, are threatened," he said through an interpreter.

If Chinese workers were permitted free speech, Wei said, they would speak out against permanent NTR and China's entry into the World Trade Organization. "They share your will" to fight, he said.

The United States had negotiated several trade agreements with China during the past decade, all of which it has violated. "They proved we couldn't trust them then, why should we trust them now?" asked James Conigliaro, who traveled to the rally from Machinists District Lodge 15, which represents workers in New York and New Jersey.

Union members at the rally said their two biggest concerns with scrapping annual review of China's behavior are human rights abuses and potential job loss here at home.

"These people are making13 cents an hour," said Vince Rodney, a Food and Commercial Workers Local 1994 member from Montgomery County, Md. "How do you raise a family and nurture a child on that? It's unconscionable. Then their government steals our jobs and sends them to sweatshops there. If we give up the review, we won't have any leverage on them at all."

"You've got to stand up for what's right. Things we take for granted—the right to organize, not go to jail for speaking your mind—Chinese workers don't have that," said Dave Lucas, secretary-treasurer of IBT Local 671 in Hartford, Conn.

Johnnie Vance, secretary/treasurer of UNITE Local 1044 in Ashland, Ky., said she and her fellow workers at Corbin Ltd. in Ashland had seen the effects of NAFTA firsthand and feared permanent free trade with China would be even worse.

"We're were making 1,250 coats a week before NAFTA; now we're making 250. We're lucky to work 18 to 24 hours a week. I don't know where all those coats went, but I guess they went south," she said.

UAW member Debra Williams from Fremont, Calif., was among the thousands of union members visiting members of Congress to urge them to vote against legislation to grant China permanent NTR.

"We know the world is a global marketplace now," said Williams during a meeting with Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) and five other union members. "But we want it to be a fair marketplace, too, and we have deep concerns about China's human rights abuses, the terrible environmental problems their industry creates and American job loss," she said.

Among those speaking at the rally were AFT President Sandra Feldman, IBT President James P. Hoffa, UAW President Stephen Yokich, UNITE President Jay Mazur, USWA President George Becker, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson, Rep. David Bonior (D-Mich.) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

The week's global economy actions kicked off April 9 with a Jubilee 2000 rally calling on the world's industrialized nations and financial institutions, such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, to forgive the staggering debt of the world's developing nations.

On April 13, Steelworkers held candlelight vigils in Lafayette Park across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House and in some two dozen other locations around the country to bring attention to China's dismal human rights record. The union, joined by United Students Against Sweatshops, held a teach-in April 14 at the Marriot Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.

The AFL-CIO and affiliate unions took part in the Mobilization for Global Justice rally on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., April 16, which coincided with World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings.