ROBERT KUTTNER

Gore's Troubles With Labor Unions

By Robert Kuttner, May 9, 1999

Robert Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect. His column appears regularly in the Globe.

But last Monday, at a meeting of the AFL-CIO's political committee, presidents of key industrial unions refused to recommend a unanimous endorsement of the vice president. Gore and his staff are trying to repair the damage.

The labor federation's political committee makes a recommendation to its executive committee, scheduled to meet in August. Executive committee action, in turn, sets up an endorsement at the AFL-CIO general convention in October.

The immediate divisive issue is administration opposition to a bill to protect the domestic steel industry from a surge of very low-priced steel imported from Asian nations, triggered by the Asian financial crisis. The administration prefers negotiating "voluntary" export restraints, which preserves the illusion of free trade.

But the deeper issue is labor unhappiness with the administration's general stance on trade -- everything from NAFTA to demands for presidential "fast-track" negotiating authority to the administration's China trade policy. The coolness to Gore mixes industry-specific concerns with a broader unease that the administration is promoting a set of rules for world commerce that emphasizes property rights but largely ignores labor, environmental, and human rights issues. One possible compromise would have the administration support a trade bill with labor and environmental standards more to labor's liking.

Given Republican opposition, such a bill would not likely pass. But since any trade bill is an uphill battle this year, at least a prolabor one would would produce harmony between the administration and its sometime union allies.

The administration has been generally good to the unions on several narrow policy matters that are life-and-death issues for organized labor. These include making friendly appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, blocking Republican legislation that would legalize company unions in the guise of promoting teamwork, and the administration's steadfast support of "prevailing wage" legislation despite the opposition of some New Democrat types.

The public employee and service sector unions feel that the administration has treated them well, and they are generally much keener on an early Gore endorsement than the industrial unions. The AFL-CIO's top leadership is somewhat embarrassed at its failure thus far to reward Gore and promote party unity with an early endorsement.

Labor's ambivalence about Gore is all the more surprising given that Gore's key rival, former New Jersey senator Bill Bradley, is even more of a free trader than the vice president. But here labor's coolness to Gore over trade issues blends into a general worry by some union strategists that the public is weary of the whole Clinton crowd and that a fresh face might do better in the general election.

Steelworkers president George Becker, one of the most outspoken critics of administration trade policy, says: "America lost 360,000 manufacturing jobs last year, and at the present rate we'll lose 600,000 more this year. Administration policies are flying in the face of principled positions of the labor movement on jobs and communities and families." This view is generally echoed by other industrial unions.

Gore is further buffeted by the labor movement's lack of a consistent set of criticisms. Ironically, some unionists fault Gore for being part of an administration trade policy that largely ignores environmental concerns, while other unions fear that his support for cleaner air would be bad for workers who make autos and mine coal. The vice president is almost imprisoned by his front-runner status. In this case, the labor movement, once expected to be among his earliest and strongest supporters, is treating him almost as a hostage. The surprising setback for Gore over trade policy signals both that trade will continue to be a divisive issue within the Democratic camp and that Gore's anticipated coronation is anything but assured.

Riding the crest of an economic boom that has not extended down to millions of ordinary working families, the administration has won broad business and suburban support, but at the risk of alienating some of its base. Clinton, ever the illusionist, seems able to paper over these divisions. But here as elsewhere, the earnest and squeaky clean Gore seems to be dying for Clinton's sins.