For Release: Wednesday, May 24, 2000

Statement by UAW President Stephen P. Yokich on
China PNTR Vote

DETROIT, MI. On behalf of the 1.3 million members of the UAW, I want to thank the 197 members of the U.S. House of Representatives who, under tremendous pressure from the White House and the business community, stood with us in our fight for human and workers' rights and for a new approach to trade - one that lifts working people up instead of pushing them down.

Needless to say, we are deeply disappointed that a majority of House members were on the other side in this critically important fight.

As we have said throughout the debate on China trade policy, we believe the China WTO deal and PNTR are not bold steps forward, but simply the continuation of a severely flawed approach to trade that has produced a huge and rapidly worsening trade deficit, American jobs lost, and the unconscionable exploitation-for-profit of millions of workers in China and other developing countries.

But while we are disappointed by the outcome of today's vote, we are encouraged that the debate on the China WTO deal and PNTR has focused long-overdue attention on the Chinese government's brutal repression of labor activists, democratic dissidents, and religious minorities - and on the impact of globalization on working people worldwide.

President Clinton, Vice President Gore, Speaker Hastert, Congressman Levin, and other proponents of PNTR for China claim that the China trade deal will lead to a more free and open Chinese society and benefit American workers as well. We intend to hold them to their promises.

In that spirit, the UAW calls on President Clinton to demonstrate his commitment to human and workers' rights by demanding that the Chinese government immediately free Wang Changhuai, Yue Tianxiang, Guo Xinmin, Guo Qiqing, Zhang Jingsheng, Liu Jingsheng, Hu Shigen, Yao Guisheng, Wang Guoqi, Peng Shi, and the thousands of other Chinese citizens who today are in prison cells for the "crime" of trying to form free trade unions.