Sweeney Vows Mobilization for a Working Families Agenda and Global Fairness

At a May 25 press conference, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said working families want Congress to dedicate "as much time and energy in the coming months to the people's business as they spent on corporate business" during the debate that resulted in the U.S. House voting to grant China permanent Normal Trade Relations status.

Unions, he said, will respond to the House vote with massive mobilizations to enact a Working Families Agenda and elect candidates who support it.

Sweeney criticized President Clinton's tactics in the permanent NTR battle, saying the president chose to "divide progressive elected officials and their core constituencies at a time when we need to be unified and mobilized around Social Security, health care, education and other working family issues."

Sweeney vowed that this fall, unions will mount an effective mobilization effort and "the biggest get-out-the-vote campaign ever" to elect working-family-friendly candidates around the country.

In response to a question about how the vote might affect union members' support for Vice President Al Gore's run for the White House, Sweeney said, "This was clearly the president's bill. He [Gore] did very little lobbying. Al Gore stands on his commitment he made to the AFL-CIO convention that he will strive to include core labor standards, human rights standards and environmental protections in any trade agreement" he negotiates as president.

Corporate America's $12 million lobbying campaign for passage of the bill was the biggest influence on the May 24 U.S. House vote to grant permanent NTR to China, said Sweeney and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka.

Sweeney said that while the China vote could depress turnout among working people who "become more cynical about whether people and principles pay off in politics—or whether big money is all powerful—we know that people-powered politics works and we are going to work very hard to get average voters re-engaged." The debate "showed the force of concerns over human rights and workers' rights and the environment when it comes to trade and investment agreements, and elevated those issues."

Sweeney cited three major areas the AFL-CIO and its unions will focus on in the coming months: the union movement's ongoing campaign for global fairness, passage of working family legislation on Capitol Hill and election of pro-worker candidates.

The China vote was just part of a larger, multiyear campaign for global fairness that will continue to escalate and will include a push for "a major new effort to hold corporations accountable to upholding internationally recognized fundamental human rights," he said.

Meanwhile, union members will mobilize around several crucial working family issues on Capitol Hill. Sweeney called for passage of an education bill to provide more teachers, set high student standards and rebuild crumbling schools; a minimum wage increase; and legislation to strengthen Social Security and create a Medicare prescription drug benefit.

"We have to redouble our efforts to be sure no family is denied high-quality, affordable health care," he said.

Unions will become more involved in the candidate selection process, including the AFL-CIO's 2000 in 2000 initiative to create "a seed bed of candidates who understand working family issues."

"We're going to have to take a hard look at how to create a new politics that truly serves working Americans," Sweeney said.

He also called for major campaign finance reform to counter the 11-to-1 spending advantage Big Business has over working families and their unions.

"We will mount the biggest effort to engage working men and women in judging the records of every single candidate on the issues most important to them and electing candidates who will stand with them," Sweeney said.