Bush Denies AFL-CIO China Trade Petition: A ‘Slap in the Face’ to Workers   by James Parks, Jul 21, 2006

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The Bush administration’s decision today to reject the AFL-CIO petition demanding China’s government stop denying workers their rights is “a slap in the face to Chinese and American workers who expect our government to uphold the law,” AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka says:

In rejecting this petition, President Bush has shown once again that he is beholden to corporate interests at the expense of working families.

It’s a travesty that after five years of failed trade policy that have contributed to the loss of almost three million U.S. manufacturing jobs and a record trade deficit of $726 billion, the Administration continues to take no meaningful action to support America’s workers or stop the abuse of workers in China.

The AFL-CIO, along with Reps. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Chris Smith (R- N.J.), filed a petition June 8 with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) charging China’s government systematically denies workers’ basic rights and prevents them from exercising internationally recognized workers’ rights, such as the freedom to form unions. Further, the petition documents how China’s failure to protect workers’ rights is an unfair trade practice that costs U.S. jobs.

The petition, which was supported by some 40 members of the U.S. House and Senate calls on President George W. Bush to use his authority under U.S. law to impose sanctions against China or take other actions to remedy the situation. In June alone, more than 68,000 workers across the nation sent e-mails to President Bush and Congress urging immediate action to halt the abuse of China’s workers.

The AFL-CIO filed a similar petition in March 2004. In rejecting the petition in 2004, the USTR did not dispute the facts in the petition, but insisted that Bush was taking other actions to advance workers’ rights. Two years later, China’s violations or workers’ rights continue, according to reports by the U.S. State Department, Chinese activists and human rights groups.

This denial of workers’ rights lowers Chinese wages between 47 and 86 percent, according to the AFL-CIO petition. If the government enforced workers’ rights, the overall costs of manufacturing in China would rise between 12 percent and 77 percent, the petition said.

Using a model from the U.S. International Trade Commission, the federation calculates Chinese exports have a 43 percent cost advantage over U.S. exports—an advantage responsible for the loss of up to 973,000 manufacturing jobs and 1.23 million total jobs in the United States.

The AFL-CIO will continue the fight for fair trade and workers’ rights, not just in China but around the world, Trumka says:

The AFL-CIO will continue to work aggressively with Congress to push the administration to protect and value workers’ rights everywhere and support fair trade policies that uplift workers in the U.S. and abroad.

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