WASHINGTON (AP) -- The AFL-CIO said Tuesday it had accepted the invitation of Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi to visit China for a first-hand look at labor conditions. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney he hoped to lead a labor union delegation for a tour as early as August.þþ``I would request that in addition to meeting with you and other government officials, our delegation be given the same freedom of movement in China afforded the numerous delegations from China that visit the United States each year,'' Sweeney said in a letter to Wu.þþWu had extended the invitation to the labor federation during a news conference last month with Bush administration officials in which she called the AFL-CIO's allegations of widespread labor abuses in China ``completely groundless.'' She invited the labor officials to come to China for an ``on-the-spot evaluation'' of working conditions.þþLast month, the administration rejected the AFL-CIO's petition that it launch an unfair trade practices investigation into China's alleged labor rights abuses. The administration also said it would not agree to a request from manufacturing groups for a separate investigation into allegations that China is manipulating its currency to gain unfair trade advantages.þþAdministration officials said they believed that issues of labor rights and currency policy were better dealt with through constructive engagement with China rather than threatening possible trade sanctions against the country.þþSweeney said Tuesday that the administration's approach represented an ``all talk and no action policy.''þþHe said the three-sentence formal notice of the rejection of the AFL-CIO petition that appeared in the Federal Register on Tuesday ``avoids the substance of the very serious allegations in our petition and gives no legal basis for refusing to even investigate the charges we made.''þþThe AFL-CIO contended in its petition that China was abusing worker rights and this was giving the country an unfair wage advantage of between 47 percent and 86 percent and had cost the loss of an estimated 727,000 U.S. factory jobs.þþIn his letter to Wu, Sweeney said he would like to lead a small delegation that would include American workers and international trade union leaders.þþ``We would like the freedom to develop our own itinerary, make our own travel arrangements and bring our own interpreters,'' Sweeney said in the letter.þþþþ
Source: NY Times
