House votes for China trade bill - July/August 2000 Solidarity

UAW members lobby hard, but…
House votes for China trade bill

UAW members worked hard to stop Congress from granting permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to China.

Busloads of members headed to Washington, D.C., from all across the country, and union members made phone calls up until the last minute.

But in the end the House of Representatives voted 237 to 197 for the bill which was heavily supported by big business—and a strange political alliance between the Clinton administration and the House Republican leadership.

Labor’s efforts made a strong impact, nonetheless.

Though President Clinton waged a high-pressure campaign, in the end most Democrats—138 out of 211—stuck with the UAW.

“China has never honored any of its trade agreements with the United States,” declared Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., expressing the views of most House Democrats.

Republican whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, lined up 164 Republicans to back the pro-China bill though 57 Republicans defied DeLay and House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

The UAW had opposed the bill arguing that it was wrong to give a “blank check” to China by ending the annual Congressional review of its trade status.

UAW leaders told Congress that the agreement failed to protect American auto and aerospace workers, failed to require China to recognize fundamental worker and human rights, and failed to provide adequate mechanisms to enforce China’s trade commitments.

Alan Reuther, the UAW’s legislative director, testified May 3 before the House Ways and Means Committee that the WTO accession agreement was “fundamentally flawed.”

We were joined in our lobbying by the AFL-CIO, religious groups, environmentalists, and veterans organizations.

The labor movement ran television and radio ads in key Congressional districts.

But as the Wall Street Journal noted May 23, “labor’s pockets are shallow compared with those of Corporate America.”

The Business Roundtable, an organization of top executives from Boeing, Citigroup, General Motors, and others, spent $9.2 million on their pro-China campaign.

We also faced opposition from the Agricultural Trade Coalition, a group of 85 farm organizations and agribusinesses who see China as a huge export market.

The UAW was disappointed in the vote—and the support that both Texas governor George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore had given the bill.

“America’s working families need and deserve a president they can count on to stand with them on their tough issues, not just the easy ones,” said UAW President Stephen P. Yokich.

Yokich said it wasn’t possible to turn to Republican candidate George W. Bush “whose positions on issues of concern to working families are far worse than Gore’s.”

Instead Yokich said the UAW has no choice but to actively explore alternatives to the two major political parties including possibly supporting Ralph Nader.

The union’s concerns about the China deal were reinforced just after the vote.

Supporters of granting PNTR argued that because U.S. markets are already open to Chinese goods and the trade deal would lower Chinese tariffs, that any job loss would come from Pacific Rim countries.

The labor movement is worried about the increasing investments that multinational corporations like General Motors are making in China.

GM Executive Vice President Phil Murtaugh has said GM is increasing the percentage of Chinese-made auto parts at its Shanghai facility from 40 to 80 percent.

Then the day after the vote, the lead article in the Wall Street Journal confirmed labor’s worst fears.

“The China investment rush is on,” said the Journal.

And it quoted an economist with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Co. who said: “This deal is about investment, not exports.”