House Democrats Letter To Clinton On Labor Rights In WTO

November 17, 1999

William J. Clinton, President
The White House
Washington, D.C.


Dear President Clinton:

We believe that the Administration should use the United States' greatest
negotiating leverage - access to the U.S. market - to improve the rights and
living standards of workers in the U.S. and around the world.

The Administration should condition trade relationships with the U.S. on the
guarantee of internationally recognized rights of workers:
to organize into independent unions and bargain
collectively;
to prohibit the use of child and forced labor;
to be protected by workplace safety and disclosure laws, and

to benefit from minimum wage laws.

Unfortunately, the Administration's negotiating agenda for the Millennium
Round of the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle does not take this
approach.  Instead, it perpetuates the unbalanced track record of the WTO,
in which the rights of business have greatly expanded, while the rights of
workers have not.

Through the WTO, rights of business have been greatly expanded, in the form
of tariff reductions, trade liberalization, curtailment of government
purchasing prerogatives, and intellectual property protections.  But not a
single worker protection, child labor prohibition, minimum wage standard or
right to organize into unions and bargain collectively has been achieved or
even protected through the WTO.  Worse, the WTO is being used to undermine
worker rights.  At the current time, there is a WTO panel hearing arguments
against a country's ban on asbestos, a proven carcinogen in humans and a
substantial workplace danger.  And according to the Congressional Research
Service, legislation proposed in the U.S. Congress to ban imports of
products made with child labor "would be inconsistent with GATT articles."


Before any new WTO agreement is negotiated, we urge the Administration to
pursue the following:

1) a comprehensive assessment on the WTO's effects on national
legislation to prohibit child and forced labor, protect workers who organize
into unions and bargain collectively; establish workplace safety and
right-to-know standards that are minimally equivalent to current U.S.
standards; and establish legal minimum wage levels, and

2) the re-negotiation of existing WTO agreements to explicitly enable
the U.S. and other countries to prohibit import of products made with child
and forced labor, and to use the leverage of access to the U.S. market and
other markets to guarantee the rights of workers to organize into unions and
bargain collectively; to be protected by workplace safety and right-to-know
standards that are minimally equivalent to current U.S. standards; and to
benefit from legal minimum wage levels.

If the U.S. included these objectives in its trade negotiating agenda, it
would greatly improve conditions for workers in the U.S. and around the
world.  American workers would benefit.  They would have less reason to be
pressured into abandoning efforts to improve wages and conditions by
employer threats to move plants and equipment to the Third World, where
wages are only a fraction of those in the U.S. and where companies are able
to expose workers to dangerous workplaces.  Foreign workers would also
benefit because it would increase the ability of governments throughout the
world to implement policies that serve the interests of the majority of
their population, rather than subjecting them to a "race to the bottom" of
wage levels, workplace dangers and living standards.

Workers deserve to be protected at least as well as compact disc makers.

We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,


113 Signers as of Nov. 18, 1999

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich
Rep. David Bonior
Rep. Pete Visclosky
Rep. Jim Oberstar
Rep. Lane Evans
Rep. Sherrod Brown
Rep. Peter DeFazio
Rep. Bernie Sanders
Rep. Carrie Meek
Rep. Maxine Waters
Rep. Lynn Woolsey
Rep. Patsy Mink
Rep. Frank Pallone
Rep. John Conyers
Rep. John Lewis
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
Rep. John Tierney
Rep. George Miller
Rep. John Baldacci
Rep. Major Owens
Rep. Jerry Costello
Rep. Neil Abercrombie
Rep. Jose Serrano
Rep. David Obey
Rep. William Lipinski
Rep. Marcy Kaptur
Rep. Maurice Hinchey
Rep. Ron Klink
Rep. Bob Wise
Rep. Jerry Kleczka
Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
Rep. Bob Weygand
Rep. Bob Borski
Rep. Mike McNulty
Rep. Ted Strickland
Rep. Martin Olav Sabo
Rep. Ciro Rodriguez
Rep. Ed Pastor
Rep. Jim Traficant
Rep. Tammy Baldwin
Rep. Danny K. Davis
Rep. Robert Brady
Rep. Julia Carson
Rep. Collin Peterson
Rep. John Murtha
Rep. Frank Mascara
Rep. William J. Coyne
Rep. Bill Pascrell
Rep. Dale Kildee
Rep. Bart Stupak
Rep. Tony Hall
Rep. Leonard Boswell
Rep. Melvin Watt
Rep. William Delahunt
Rep. Jim Barcia
Rep. Sam Gejdenson
Rep. Nick Rahall
Rep. Alan Mollohan
Rep. Pat Danner
Rep. Joseph Crowley
Rep. Joe Moakley
Rep. Lynn Rivers
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard
Rep. Steven Rothman
Rep. William Clay
Rep. Janice Schakowsky
Rep. Luis Gutierrez
Rep. Rush Holt
Rep. Henry Waxman
Rep. Brad Sherman
Rep. Karen McCarthy
Rep. Donald Payne
Rep. Barney Frank
Rep. Bud Cramer
Rep. Julian Dixon
Rep. Benny Thompson
Rep. Robert Andrews
Rep. Bobby Rush
Rep. Mike Doyle
Rep. Jerrold Nadler
Rep. Bob Filner;
Rep Fortney "Pete" Stark;
Rep. Albert Wynn;
Rep. John Larson;
Rep. Lloyd Doggett;
Rep. Nick Lampson;
Rep. Bobby Scott;
Rep. Jim McGovern;
Rep. Joseph Hoeffel;
Rep. Mark Udall;
Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee;
Rep. Gene Green;
Rep. Gregory Meeks;
Rep. Earl Hilliard;
Rep. Gene Taylor
Rep. Corrine Brown;
Rep. Alcee Hastings;
Rep. Tim Holden;
Rep. Anthony Weiner;
Rep. David Phelps;
Rep. Mike Forbes;
Rep. Louise Slaughter;
Rep. Jim Clyburn;
Rep. Nydia Velasquez;
Rep. Matthew Martinez;
Rep. Chakah Fattah;
Rep. Eliot Engel;
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson;
Rep. Ed Towns;
Rep. Max Sandlin;
Rep. Rosa DeLauro.