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Unions Challenge Bush on China Trade, Worker Abuse
The AFL-CIO took unprecedented action March 16 to stem the loss of American manufacturing jobs to China and to seek sanctions against that nation for its brutal repression of workers' rights.
The federation filed a petition under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 demanding that President Bush and the U.S. Trade Representative employ sanctions against the Chinese government for engaging in unreasonable trade practices by its violations of workers' rights.
The filing calls on the administration to impose trade remedies commensurate with the cost-advantage caused by China's denial of workers' rights; to negotiate an agreement with China that will reduce those remedies if China meets specific and verifiable benchmarks of enforcement of workers' rights; and to enter into no new World Trade Organization-related trade agreements until the WTO requires each of its members to comply with core labor rights specified by the United Nations' International Labour Organization.
"The concept of free trade in a global marketplace becomes a complete sham when one of the world's major markets, China, is founded upon a system of worker repression and virtual slave labor," said CWA President Morton Bahr, commenting on the AFL-CIO's petition.
Bahr, who chairs the AFL-CIO's International Affairs Committee, noted that the cost-advantage of China's artificially low wage system has directly cost the United States hundreds of thousands of jobs and has dragged down labor standards all over the world.
According to the petition, workers in China are being forced to work for wages 47 to 86 percent below what they should be, often as bonded laborers, with few workplace health and safety protections and no right to join or form free trade unions.
The cost-advantage of worker repression to China-based producers is staggering, the petition states. If the Chinese government enforced workers' rights and its own minimum wage and workplace standards, manufacturing costs there would rise between 12 and 77 percent, or an average of 44 percent.
AFL-CIO Secretary Richard Trumka, who heads the federation's Industrial Union Council, noted that 2.8 million manufacturing jobs have disappeared just since Bush took office. He blamed "a global trading system that fails to protect workers' rights, which translates into a powerful inducement for capital flight, overseas production by U.S. industries, and a loss of market share by domestic producers."
"China has emerged as a chief violator of workers' rights, and its workforce is so large and its labor repression so comprehensive, that it is dragging down standards for the entire world."
Trumka pointed out that the U.S. trade deficit with China is $124 billion, the nation's largest, and said the petition presents evidence that more than 700,000 U.S. workers have been displaced as a direct result of violations of workers' rights by the Chinese government.
Though trade unions have made frequent use of other workers' rights provisions in U.S. trade law, the federation's petition is the first ever Section 301 filing for violations of human rights.
The federation filed a petition under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 demanding that President Bush and the U.S. Trade Representative employ sanctions against the Chinese government for engaging in unreasonable trade practices by its violations of workers' rights.
The filing calls on the administration to impose trade remedies commensurate with the cost-advantage caused by China's denial of workers' rights; to negotiate an agreement with China that will reduce those remedies if China meets specific and verifiable benchmarks of enforcement of workers' rights; and to enter into no new World Trade Organization-related trade agreements until the WTO requires each of its members to comply with core labor rights specified by the United Nations' International Labour Organization.
"The concept of free trade in a global marketplace becomes a complete sham when one of the world's major markets, China, is founded upon a system of worker repression and virtual slave labor," said CWA President Morton Bahr, commenting on the AFL-CIO's petition.
Bahr, who chairs the AFL-CIO's International Affairs Committee, noted that the cost-advantage of China's artificially low wage system has directly cost the United States hundreds of thousands of jobs and has dragged down labor standards all over the world.
According to the petition, workers in China are being forced to work for wages 47 to 86 percent below what they should be, often as bonded laborers, with few workplace health and safety protections and no right to join or form free trade unions.
The cost-advantage of worker repression to China-based producers is staggering, the petition states. If the Chinese government enforced workers' rights and its own minimum wage and workplace standards, manufacturing costs there would rise between 12 and 77 percent, or an average of 44 percent.
AFL-CIO Secretary Richard Trumka, who heads the federation's Industrial Union Council, noted that 2.8 million manufacturing jobs have disappeared just since Bush took office. He blamed "a global trading system that fails to protect workers' rights, which translates into a powerful inducement for capital flight, overseas production by U.S. industries, and a loss of market share by domestic producers."
"China has emerged as a chief violator of workers' rights, and its workforce is so large and its labor repression so comprehensive, that it is dragging down standards for the entire world."
Trumka pointed out that the U.S. trade deficit with China is $124 billion, the nation's largest, and said the petition presents evidence that more than 700,000 U.S. workers have been displaced as a direct result of violations of workers' rights by the Chinese government.
Though trade unions have made frequent use of other workers' rights provisions in U.S. trade law, the federation's petition is the first ever Section 301 filing for violations of human rights.