Clinton Jilting His Party to Woo NAFTA Votes, Labor Chief Says : Trade: AFL-CIO leader assails the President for pork-barrel deals with Republicans. He sees defeat of pact benefiting the Administration.

In a clear sign of a widening split between organized labor and the White House, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland charged Monday that President Clinton has “abdicated” his role as leader of the Democratic Party by pressing for approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“The best thing that could happen to the Clinton Administration is for this agreement to be voted down,” Kirkland told a small group of reporters 48 hours before a scheduled House showdown on the accord. “There are big issues still to be addressed--health care, a jobs program and others. If this agreement is defeated, as it should be, then I think we’ll be in a better position to turn to those issues with a whole heart.”

If Clinton obtains the majority he needs to win ratification of the trade pact in Wednesday’s floor vote, “the bitterness in our ranks will linger and will be harder to overcome,” Kirkland said.

Kirkland’s harsh evaluation of Clinton came after the President accused the AFL-CIO of using strong-arm tactics on members of Congress in an effort to defeat the trade agreement, which would tear down trade barriers among the United States, Mexico and Canada over a 15-year period.

The highly charged rhetoric is unusual because organized labor is one of the key constituencies that helped Clinton end 12 years of Republican control of the executive branch. The Administration has consulted with labor officials in drafting its proposed health care reform plan and other policy initiatives.

But that rapport seems to have been erased by the fight over the trade pact. Using unusually blunt language, Kirkland accused the Administration of buying votes by making concessions to fence-sitting Democrats.

“The door to the Treasury has been opened to dole out the pork,” Kirkland said.

But Kirkland stopped well short of suggesting that the AFL-CIO would refuse to endorse Clinton for reelection because of the feud, saying that labor has had sharp differences with other Democrats in the White House whom they had supported.

Kirkland said that enough members of the House have made hard commitments to vote against the trade agreement to assure its defeat--if they stick by their word.

“Whenever you’re up against the Treasury of the United States and the capacity of the Administration to open it up and extend favors on a retail basis at the cost of the taxpayers, you can’t take anything for granted,” he said. “That’s a heavy force, and I can’t tell you I’m totally confident.”

Kirkland assailed Clinton for promising to extend support to Republicans who vote for the pact if they are assailed by Democratic opponents in the 1994 campaign. “The President has clearly abdicated his role as leader of the Democratic Party,” he said. “I take it it’s something he was coerced into doing by (House Republicans). The pressure was put on him, and he succumbed to it.”

The AFL-CIO leader noted that Clinton is pushing for the agreement, despite the opposition of a solid majority of House Democrats, and allying himself with Republicans in Congress who defeated his $16.3-billion economic stimulus program in April.

Kirkland also rejected Clinton’s recent suggestion that AFL-CIO officials in Washington have the ability to grant or withhold labor backing to congressional candidates. State and local units of the AFL-CIO make those decisions, he said.

“The NAFTA question is a burning one at the grass roots of the labor movement in every locality and every state,” he said. “Our members feel deeply, and the outcome of this will weigh heavily on their (endorsement) decisions.”