Gephardt: NAFTA not the answer

Tuesday, Sept. 16, 1997 | 11:18 a.m.

House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt sees a long-term solution to the problem of Mexicans entering the United States illegally, and it's not NAFTA.

It's decent wages.

"We can't keep illegal aliens from entering America till there are good living conditions in Mexico," he said.

Speaking Monday at the Nevada AFL-CIO's 41st annual convention, the potential candidate for president in 2000 blasted the North American Free Trade Agreement, pointing out that while the number of Mexican jobs have doubled to 1 million, the average hourly wage has dropped from $1 to 70 cents.

"The turnover rate in those jobs is 100 percent," Gephardt said, "because in Mexico you can't live on 70 cents an hour."

The Missouri Democrat said he is all for a free-trade accord, but one that is fair and guarantees living wages for the workers in Mexico.

Gephardt said he visited Juarez and other border towns and saw people living in shacks made of cardboard from shipping crates used by high-tech manufacturing plants owned by General Motors, Sony and other major corporations.

He said an open ditch filled with raw sewage runs down the middle of Juarez.

"The city doesn't even have a sewage treatment plant," Gephardt said, his voice filled with emotion as he described people being taken advantage of by government and employers alike. "There are hepatitis and cholera outbreaks all the time. People are living like animals."

Gephardt noted that he voted against NAFTA, even though President Clinton pushed hard for its passage. He said he opposed the agreement because it did not force companies to pay living wages.

Gephardt clearly had the support of the 200 delegates attending the convention, representing 120,000 AFL-CIO members statewide.

"The working people of this country have been awakened by the labor unions," said Gephardt, noting that his own father was a union member in St. Louis.

He asserted that even though America is experiencing a dynamic economy with a growth rate of 15 to 30 percent, wages are not keeping up with production.

"I don't think workers have had a 15 percent pay increase," he said, pointing out that even in light of the economic growth more and more husbands and wives are holding down two, three and more jobs to make ends meet.

The House minority leader also had strong words for education during his speech to the union members and also at a forum held earlier in the day at UNLV.

He called it outrageous that in his home state taxpayers are going to have to pay for 40,000 new prison cells, while education is suffering.

"It's a disaster," he said.

Gephardt told students and educators at UNLV that "education is the most important issue in the country and will be for your lifetime."

He said this country is in an intensely competitive global economy and the only way to compete is to be more productive than other countries. And the way to be more productive is to be better educated, he said.

"The federal government is not the board of education," he said, "but the federal government can be an active partner in education."

Gephardt pointed out that while Las Vegas is having to cope with a bulging school system, in dire need of more school buildings, other school districts around the nation are suffering because they need to replace or repair old buildings.

He called for the creation of a national revolving fund that will loan money to school districts for their building needs.

Again noting that more parents are working, he said there is a severe need for quality care for students before and after school and during summers.

"We need to become obsessed with our children and with education in this country," Gephardt said.

Congressional candidate Shelley Berkley hosted the UNLV forum and she also spoke at the AFL-CIO convention.

Gephardt has said he would put Berkley on the House Ways and Means Committee if Democrats regain control of the House next year.

She is running for the seat now occupied by John Ensign, R-Nev., who has announced he is likely to challenge Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 1998.

Berkley reminded the conventioneers that when she was in the state Legislature, she had a "100 percent rating" with the AFL-CIO.

Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, a candidate for governor, also was among Monday's convention speakers.

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