The University of Alabama at Birmingham
Office of Media Relations
December 1, 1999
Contact: Nick Patterson
975-8858/[email protected]
WTO RIOTS WILL NOT QUIET LABOR'S VOICE UAB EXPERT SAYS SEATTLE PROTESTS WON'T LEAD TO LABOR CRACKDOWN
STORY: As protestors and police clash in Seattle outside the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting, legitimate labor union concerns about safety, environmental, and worker rights standards among WTO nations will continue to be heard, said a labor expert at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Edwin L. Brown, associate professor at UAB's Center for Labor Education And Research(CLEAR), said the riots have only distracted people from the long-standing position of labor on the need for standards in world trade.
Despite the riots, Brown said the WTO protests have already had positive results. "There was some recognition by [President] Clinton and by business people that labor issues deserve to be heard," Brown said, adding that authorities are not likely to crack down on union protests because of what is happening in Seattle.
WHO: Edwin L. Brown is the author of numerous books, articles and documentary films on the labor movement in the South and elsewhere. Brown's publications include the book "It is Union and Liberty: Alabama Coal Miners and the UMW"(1999,The University of Alabama Press). Brown also authored, with former CLEAR professor Frank Borgers, the articles "To Strike or Not to Strike: Local Union Bargaining with Multinational Corporations"(1997 Proceedings, Allied Social Sciences Association), "Collective Bargaining with Multinational Corporations" (1996, Proceeedings, Southern Industrial Relations Association)
Brown has held seminars on "American Labor Competing in the World Economy," "The Global Economy and Organized Labor" and "NAFTA's Exclusion of the Social Tariff." He also has been a consultant and academic specialist to the Congress of Organized Trade Unions for the Republic of Kenya in a U.S. State Department-funded project.
CALL: Brown at CLEAR, 205-934-2101.
FYI: CLEAR was created in 1972 to provide university level education to workers and their representatives. To meet the needs of working people, CLEAR currently provides three programs: Labor Education, Workplace Environmental Safety and Health, and Mutual Gains Exploration.
UAB News on the Web: www.uab.edu/news
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