With Gephardt Gone, Kerry Is Lining Up Labor Backing

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February 10, 2004

New York Times
by David M. Halbfinger
http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/clips/news_2004_0210a.html
Memphis, TN —

Senator John Kerry is poised to win a string of crucial labor endorsements before the Wisconsin primary next Tuesday, labor officials say.

The Building and Construction Trades Department of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. is likely to throw its weight behind Mr. Kerry after a meeting on Tuesday, labor and campaign officials said.

The Alliance for Economic Justice, a coalition of 18 unions that had endorsed Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, is to hold a conference call on Wednesday and could endorse Mr. Kerry as early as this weekend.

PACE International, the paper workers union, which may not make an endorsement before the Wisconsin voting, has freed its local unions in that state to endorse candidates, and Mr. Kerry is strongly favored. PACE, a member of the Alliance for Economic Justice, is the largest industrial union in Wisconsin, with more than 40,000 members.


CNN hinted today (Novak?) that Teamsters President James Hoffa will go ahead and endorse John Kerry in the coming days

[anti-NAFTA]

1. I hope Kerry will change his tune on NAFTA

If not, the endorsements will signify a sad day for unions.

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2. Kerry on Trade

Q : You have accused Gov. Dean of playing on workers' fears and advocating protectionism and saying that under him it threatens to throw the economy into a tail spin. It that fair?

KERRY: Yes, it is fair, because Gov. Dean has said very specifically that we should not trade with countries until they have labor and environment standards that are equal to the US. That means we would trade with no countries. It is a policy for shutting the door. It's either a policy for shutting the door, if you believe it, or it's a policy of just telling people what they want to hear.

DEAN: I supported NAFTA, I supported the WTO. We benefited in Vermont from trade. But in the Midwest, our manufacturing jobs are hemorrhaging. We have to go back and revise every single trade agreement that we have to include labor standards, environmental standards & human rights standards. If we don't, the trade policy that we seek to help globalize and help workers around the country & the world is going to fail.

Source: Debate at Pace University in Lower Manhattan

On Jobs: Trade grows jobs
Q : You have said that Kerry lacks an understanding of the job loss in this country.

DEAN: I think that's true. I want a successful trade policy, but I'm no longer willing to sacrifice the jobs of middle-class Americans in order to pad the bottom lines of multinational corporations. Trade has to be fair to workers, not just multinational corporations. And I think Senator Kerry is insensitive to the plight of American workers who have lost their manufacturing jobs.

KERRY: I'm not insensitive to the jobs. I'm desperately concerned about those jobs. But you don't fix them by pandering to people and telling them you're going to shut the door. You have to grow jobs. We need to increase our commitment to science in America, to venture capital, to the kinds of incentives that draw capital to the creation of jobs. Democrats can't love jobs and hate the people who create them. We need to encourage job creation and trade, but fair trade, and I've shown how that can happen.

Source: Debate at Pace University in Lower Manhattan

http://www.issues2000.org/Archive/Dems_Pace_U_John_Kerry.htm

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3. So, he's still for NAFTA

and thinks Dean's proposals of requiring labor and environmental standards amounts to protectionism.

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4. It sure did a lot of good for Gephardt and Dean