"The passage by the House of Representatives of PNTR for China is a blatant betrayal of American workers, their families and communities by elected politicians in both parties. It is a bitter disappointment for Steelworkers who wrote over a quarter of a million letters and made countless phone calls to their representatives expressing their opposition to it. About one-third of the Democrats in the House joined over two-thirds of the Republicans in giving a Democratic President the victory he wanted for his legacy.

"Congress had a chance to stand up for the brutally oppressed workers in China and the hundreds of thousands of U.S. manufacturing workers who will lose their jobs because of increased imports from the sweatshops of China. Instead, it turned its back on Chinese and American workers.

"The vote was held in May because its backers held the cynical and totally fallacious view that it would be forgotten by November. Workers have not forgotten the 1993 NAFTA vote and they will not forget this vote – not by this November, not by November 2002, not for decades. And Steelworkers will never forget it. And that will be one of the true legacies of this vote and this President.

"The vote creates issues for the Steelworkers Union in terms of how it responds in the election this Fall. We will not damage our credibility with our members by trying to sugarcoat a candidate’s record on this or any other issue.

Our credibility with our members is far more important than who wins any election. For now, I intend to spend a lot of time in the field meeting with our Union’s leaders and activists and subsequently our Union’s Executive Board. Ours will be a thoughtful decision. Clearly, we are looking for candidates who support labor’s issues – not, just in words, but in deeds.

"We will not support any candidate for federal office solely because that candidate calls himself or herself a Democrat. We will not oppose a candidate simply because that candidate is a Republican. Unfortunately, the corrupting power of money has caused significant elements of each party to become far less focused on the rights and interests of their constituencies. Sadly, Democratic control of the House and the Senate are desirable for workers principally because Republican control is so much worse.

"But be assured of one thing – the Steelworkers will not drop out of the process. Who we elect does make a difference. We will work this fall to elect Democrats and Republicans who support workers on trade and other key working family issues, and we will look for opportunities to improve the choices in two years. Steelworkers are already doing precisely that in three races this year. Ed O’Brien, Greg Goodnight and Marvin Williams are all Steelworkers and they are running for Congress in Pennsylvania, Indiana and Tennessee, respectively. Two of them are running against Republicans with very poor voting records on behalf of workers. The third is running against a Democrat with a similar poor voting record on worker issues. We expect that in two years there will be other Steelworkers and other union leaders running for Congress. Hopefully, that will be another legacy of the terrible vote yesterday.

"Workers around the world are suffering. Human rights and religious rights are under attack by governments such as China. The environment is at greater risk. All have gotten in the way of corporations which are driving to maximize profits by seeking the cheapest labor, the cheapest resource extraction, the least tax and regulation. The trade policies of our government and of international institutions such as the WTO have become the allies of these corporations. This has led us to work with student organizations and other groups with shared concerns for human rights, religious rights, environmental rights and worker rights. We intend to continue those associations and to strengthen them.

"With the passage of PNTR for China, the struggle for global justice has suffered a major defeat. But we will continue to work with coalition groups and with those in Congress, currently in the minority, who believe as we do that family supportive jobs, the way people are treated and the principles of democracy are more important than corporate profits."