Labor, consumer and environmental organizations won a major battle in early last November when the White House and GOP congressional leadership decided to postpone a House vote on giving President Clinton fast track authority to negotiate new trade agreements with Chile and other South American countries.

Fast track had already passed in the U.S. Senate, and the House vote was the last chance to derail it. Although fast track was derailed, another attempt at enacting it will likely take place in 1998.

"The decision to pull down the fast track legislation is the first bit of blue sky working Americans have seen in U.S. trade policy in many years," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "The American people oppose fast track by a 2-1 margin because they see existing trade agreements that don't do enough to protect living standards, or keep our food and water safe."

Judging by the failure of presidential arm-twisting and special favors during a frantic effort to win over anti-fast track votes in the House, many political analysts think it's unlikely fast track will pass even if it is brought back for a vote this spring as the White House has promised. The fact that the American public is against fast track by a 2-1 margin will make passage even tougher in an election year, pundits maintain.

Fast track would have granted President Clinton authority to negotiate trade treaties with Congress' only option being to vote the pacts up or down without changes. Pointing to the failures of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a coalition of labor, environmentalists and consumer organizations led the opposition.

It was a David and Goliath struggle from the start with the coalition facing off against President Clinton and the Republican leadership in both the U.S. House and Senate.

The result surprised many. How could grassroots lobbying by trade unionists, environmentalists and consumers prevail against a well-financed media campaign by a consortium of Business Roundtable corporations?

The answer was that the coalition kept to its message, citing the 425,000 jobs lost under NAFTA, plus NAFTA's provisions that limit inspections of imported food which have led to incidents of food poisoning in the U.S. Environmentalists told how NAFTA-deregulated pollution near the Mexican border was harming American communities.

Armed with poll data showing overwhelming public opposition to fast track authority, the lobbying of Congress began. Thousands of union members phoned and visited their lawmakers to let them know what their constituents wanted.

Pointing to hard data on job losses, food safety and increasing pollution, they refuted Clinton Administration assurances that life would be better for all Americans if fast track treaties, like NAFTA, were extended to other nations in South America.

After weeks of intense lobbying, phone banks, television ads and informational campaigns by the coalition, time was running out for a vote before Congress' winter recess, scheduled for early November. The vote-counters considered the House fast track vote too close to call right up until the final decision to table the vote at about 2 a.m. on Monday, November 10 after a rare all-weekend House session.

Labor and other coalitions leaders were jubilant after the victory.

"The message is clear: the next generation of trade policies must respect people as well as property, and factor in workers' and environmental concerns along with business interests," Sweeney said. He welcomed the chance to join with Clinton and Congress "to chart a new course of active engagement in the world that reflects our values and leads to economic growth broadly shared by working families."

Sweeney listed steps that the Clinton Administration could take to negotiate fair trade agreements while protecting workers and the environment. "We should work with the World Bank and other financial institutions to ensure that environmental concerns and core labor standards are built into lending decisions," he said.

After the decision to postpone the fast track vote, the leader of the anti-fast track campaign in the House, Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) said, "The real question before us now is whether we connect our values of environmental quality, worker and human rights to our economic policy. Americans want a trade policy that ensures that future trade agreements address all these issues.

From the Michigan AFL-CIO News, December 1997.

How To Talk To Your Neighbors

The great community organizer Saul Alinsky used to say that only when the other party is concerned or threatened will he listen.

As we try to build public opposition to fast track, we need to talk to people about the issues that concern them.

The threat of a job loss is a tremendous motivator. So is the threat that low-wage competition means to American living standards. That's what got so many Americans up in arms. But Americans have many other serious concerns with NAFTA and the whole hurried process that led to that agreement.

Fast Track

NAFTA has exposed the shortcomings of the fast track procedure which limits Congressional debate and keeps Congress from amending any proposed trade agreement with Chile or other countries. There's no reason to rush into another bad agreement. Let's put the brakes on fast track this time.

Unsafe Food

NAFTA has increased American's exposure to unsafe food. The health, safety and working conditions of Mexican farm workers are deteriorating. Pesticides that are prohibited in the U.S. are used. Strawberries, head lettuce, and carrots have high levels of illegal pesticide residues.

Trade in Narcotics and Guns

As NAFTA eased the flow of goods from Mexico into the U.S., it also opened the door to greater drug traffic because of relaxed customs procedures. Now 80 percent of the cocaine entering the U.S. comes through Mexico. And Mexicans are faced with an unwanted influx of guns into their country from north of the border.

Dangerous Trucks

Less than one percent of the 3.3 million trucks entering the U.S. are inspected. Yet 50 percent of those inspected are rejected for major safety violations.

From UAW Ammo.