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Industrial Union Council (AFL-CIO) Files Trade Petition Protesting Loss of U.S. Jobs Due to Repression of Chinese Workers March 19, 2004 Chinas anti-worker policies have created an unfair trade advantage that has cost more than 727,000 U.S. jobs. This is the charge in a petition filed with the U.S. Trade Representative on March 16th by the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council (IUC), composed of 14 unions, including the IBEW. The petition calls upon the Bush Administration to impose immediate trade sanctions against China that would be reduced if that country recognizes and enforces workers rights. The petition contends that China prevents workers from joining unions and bargaining collectively, provides no minimum wage, uses forced labor and denies citizens safe and healthful working conditions. Chinese workers wages are between 47 and 86 percent lower than they should be, which reduces the price of Chinese manufactured goods by 11 percent to 44 percent. If China recognized workers rights, the price of Chinese manufactured goods would increase by 12 to 77 percent, according to the IUC petition. Wei Jinsheng, a Chinese worker advocate and dissident, says the situation in China may be even more dire for workers than the AFL-CIO filing indicates. "The lives of the workers are miserable," he says. "The Chinese government takes the rights of workers and makes them work for minimum salary just to make money. But they dont use the money to help the workers, they use the money to purchase weapons." Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, declared his support for the union action and said he would make workers rights here and abroad a fundamental part of American trade policy. "The Bush administration has completely walked away from using trade policy to raise living standards and improve the rights of workers at home and abroad," Mr. Kerry said. The U.S. trade deficit with China topped $124 billion last year, the largest deficit with one country in U.S. history. The U.S. monthly trade deficit in January 2004 stood at a record $43.1 billion. The trade deficit affects the nations jobs. More than 2.8 million U.S. manufacturing jobs have been lost in the past three years. IBEW members are among the workers and families behind the statistics. Agere Systems, the worlds largest producer of microelectronics for the telecommunications industry is shutting down the companys plants in Pennsylvania and moving production to China. Two thousand IBEW jobs will be lost. Donald Sauder, a member of IBEW Local 1898 at Ageres Reading plant says: "Im very concerned about our whole community. My wife works at the Pennsylvania Department of Welfare. She sees first-hand what happens to the victims of unfair trade." Last year Thomson Inc., a producer of TV tubes in Marion, Indiana, put IBEW members on the street and transferred some tube-making equipment to the companys factory in China. Now the plant is being shutdown as the company moves production to Mexicali, Mexico. The flood of imported TVs from China and Malaysia has had a dire impact on IBEW members. On November 14, 2002, Sharp shut down television production in its IBEW-represented Memphis, Tennessee, plant laying off 500 workers. In January, 2003, uncertainty in the TV industry forced layoffs for IBEW members in Lebanon, Tennessee who make top-model flat screen Toshiba televisions. The IBEW Journal ( July/August, 2003) reported that the IBEW was party, with the U.S. government, to a petition that accuses China and Malaysia of the unfair trade practice of "dumping" or selling color televisions for less than the cost of making them. The U.S. International Trade Commission will hold a "final injury" hearing on the dumping case on April 15, 2004. Mark Barenberg, a Columbia University law professor, prepared the AFL-CIO petition, which was filed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. The act allows the government to take action against countries that engage in unfair trade practices against the United States. The regulation has been used extensively to protect corporate interests; this is the first time Section 301 has been invoked to protest a nations labor practices. Under the law, the Bush administration has 45 days to decide whether to accept the petition. If it accepts the petition, it has 60 days to hold a hearing and one year to decide what actions to take. If the White House rejects the petition, Barenberg says, it must find that China either does not repress workers rights or that the repression does not adversely affect the U.S. economy. Although the Bush administration "has 45 days to make up their minds, we hope they wont delay that longthey could have and should have taken action themselves long ago," says AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeny. The AFL-CIO is also seeking a ban on any new trade agreements by the United States related to the World Trade Organization (WTO) until the WTO requires its members, including China, to abide by basic international labor rights.
For more information on the Industrial Union Council (AFL-CIO) visit www.aflcio.org |
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