US Supreme Court will decide as ear

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Subject: US Supreme Court will decide as early as Nov. 29; US labor threatens mass action

The issue may come to a head soon at the U.S. Supreme Court.
> 
> The court will decide as early as Nov. 29 -- the day before the WTO meetings
> begin -- whether to hear a case regarding the constitutionality of a
> Massachusetts law that bars state purchases from companies that do business
> in Myanmar.
> 
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US Unions Warn WTO They May Block Imports From Labor Abusers
> 
> Washington, Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S.'s top labor leader warned that
> if the World Trade Organization fails to punish nations that abuse workers,
> unions will step up their campaign to block U.S. imports from the most
> flagrant violators.
> 
> John Sweeney, head of the AFL-CIO union umbrella group, said labor will
> press U.S. states and cities to halt purchases from nations that flout
> workers' rights and harm the environment.
> 
> ``If the WTO will not enforce workers' rights and environmental protection,
> then national and local governments must act to do so,'' said Sweeney. ``Let
> the WTO explain to citizens why they cannot boycott companies producing
> goods with child labor in Honduras, or slave labor in Burma, or workers who
> are locked up when they try to organize a union in China.''
> 
> Organized labor plans to dispatch thousands of its members to Seattle later
> this month to push the WTO to pay attention to workers' rights. So far,
> unions have gotten a commitment from President Bill Clinton to propose a
> ``working group'' to study labor issues at the Seattle meeting, where trade
> ministers from the WTO's 135 member countries will try to set the agenda for
> a new round of trade talks.
> 
> And today, 113 Democrats from the House of Representatives sent Clinton a
> letter calling for the ``renegotiation'' of WTO agreements to ``explicitly
> enable'' the U.S. and other countries to prohibit imports made with child
> and forced labor.
> 
> Lobbying the Locals
> 
> Sweeney, who laid out labor concerns about the WTO at the National Press
> Club and in an interview with the Bloomberg Forum, drew fire from some
> unions with the AFL-CIO's recent decision to endorse Vice President Al Gore
> for president.
> 
> Gore is a free trader, who supports the WTO and China's bid to enter the
> organization, which Sweeney opposes. Even though Sweeney was heavily
> criticized for the endorsement, he said the labor organization isn't
> reconsidering the move.
> 
> Instead, he said he wants the WTO to make labor rights abuse a global
> offense subject to retaliation by trading partners.
> 
> His campaign, which isn't yet under way, would entail union lobbying of city
> councils and state legislatures to restrict procurement of goods that may
> have been made by child or forced labor. That could add leverage to labor
> concerns at the WTO.
> 
> ``They can certainly try,'' Craig Johnstone, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's
> senior vice president for economic, political and national security affairs,
> said of Sweeney's strategy. ``I think they would be taken to court, and I
> don't think they'd be upheld anywhere.''
> 
> Dozens of Laws
> 
> The U.S. has more than 30 city, state and county laws restricting government
> purchases from companies doing business in particular countries.
> 
> Selective-purchase laws have prompted some U.S. companies, including Apple
> Computer Inc. and Eastman Kodak Co., to withdraw from Myanmar, formerly
> known as Burma. The laws were designed to pressure Myanmar to improve its
> human rights record.
> 
> The issue may come to a head soon at the U.S. Supreme Court.
> 
> The court will decide as early as Nov. 29 -- the day before the WTO meetings
> begin -- whether to hear a case regarding the constitutionality of a
> Massachusetts law that bars state purchases from companies that do business
> in Myanmar.
> 
> The National Foreign Trade Council, a group of companies that opposes
> reliance on sanctions for foreign policy, sued the state, which lost the
> case and an appeal to the First U.S. Circuit court of Appeals in Boston. The
> appeals court said the state's 1996 selective purchasing law usurped the
> federal government's foreign policy authority.
> 
> The European Union and Japan have asked the WTO to decide whether the
> Massachusetts law is barred by global trade rules, although the case has
> been on hold while the U.S. courts determine whether it violates the U.S.
> constitution, too.
> 
> Nov/19/1999   18:43