Sticky Issue Aside, Gore Glides Through Labor Meeting

Facing an audience of union leaders staunchly opposed to President Clinton’s request for “fast-track” authority to negotiate trade agreements, Vice President Al Gore ducked that issue Saturday, talking instead about common bonds between the Clinton administration and the Democrats’ powerful labor constituency.

“Of course we haven’t agreed on every single issue,” the vice president conceded, his only allusion to the fast-track controversy in a 30-minute speech to AFL-CIO officials and activists. “But the truth is we have agreed on 99% of them,” Gore maintained, adding that “occasional disagreements” have not prevented the administration and labor from working together for common goals.

“This administration has always been proudly pro-union, pro-worker, pro-strong family, and I guaran-damn-tee you, we always will be,” Gore declared to rousing applause.

Gore appeared to have a dual mission here: to ease tensions between the Clinton White House and labor leaders who fear that new trade agreements could undermine living standards and environmental safeguards, and to boost his own presidential hopes. Into his nine-hour visit he crammed two speeches and half a dozen or so private meetings with rank-and-file organizers and top union chieftains.

For his efforts he was rewarded with lavish praise from AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who introduced Gore as “No. 2 in the line of succession, but the No. 1 organizer in the U.S.” Gore spoke to about 400 national labor officials and local activists attending the AFL-CIO National Organizing Conference, a prelude to the federation’s national convention.

Gore’s trip to Pittsburgh came at a potentially critical juncture in his vice presidency. The Justice Department is reviewing whether to recommend the appointment of an independent counsel to probe Gore’s involvement in his party’s 1996 campaign-financing excesses, and on Friday the vice president hired two private attorneys to represent him.

And even as Gore hobnobbed with labor leaders here, the seriousness of the matter was underlined by the disclosure that Atty. Gen. Janet Reno has also initiated a preliminary review of President Clinton’s role in fund-raising activities.

But Gore uttered not a word about such concerns. Instead he concentrated on encouraging labor’s efforts to organize and on detailing the movement’s support from the administration.

“This president has vetoed every piece of anti-worker legislation that has landed on his desk and he will continue to do so,” Gore promised.

To demonstrate his empathy with the labor movement’s objectives, Gore recalled what he said is an old Tennessee saying: “Early to bed and early to rise, work like hell and organize.”

The fast-track authority at issue would enable the president to negotiate trade accords without fear that Congress would later unravel them with amendments. Instead, lawmakers would simply vote to approve or reject the agreements.

Sources familiar with Gore’s planning for his appearance said that at one point the vice president considered raising the fast-track issue directly by acknowledging the differences between labor and the White House and offering reassurance that Clinton would keep labor’s concerns in mind in trade negotiations.

But the sources said this option was discarded because most labor leaders Gore met with privately here did not bring up the issue.

And for their part, the union people seemed untroubled by Gore’s avoidance of the dispute. “We are not a single-issue institution,” said Gary Hubbard, a spokesman for the United Steelworkers, which is strongly opposed to fast-track authority. “We are concerned about other issues besides trade.”