July 13, 1998
      
                        Steelworkers Sue Over NAFTA Vote
       ______________________________________________________________
     
     Filed at 5:39 p.m. EDT
     
     By The Associated Press
      
     WASHINGTON (AP) -- Arguing that the North American Free Trade
     Agreement is actually a treaty, steelworkers and an allied group
     asked a federal judge Monday to rule NAFTA unconstitutional because
     it wasn't approved by a two-thirds vote of the Senate.
     
     The United Steelworkers of America and the Made in the USA
     Foundation filed suit in Birmingham, Ala., in the latest attempt to
     shelve NAFTA.
     
     The Clinton administration got NAFTA approved as a trade agreement
     by majorities in both the Senate and House in 1993.
     
     The union and other NAFTA foes argue that various provisions of
     NAFTA -- including elimination of tariffs and the creation of an
     arbitration panel -- make it a treaty as defined by the U.S.
     Constitution.
     
     The Senate approved NAFTA 61-38, enough for a trade agreement, but
     short of the two-thirds margin needed for a treaty.
     
     ``What we need to do is wipe NAFTA off the books -- clean,'' George
     Becker, president of the 750,000-member steelworkers union, told a
     news conference in Washington.
     
     He said NAFTA ``has been an unmitigated disaster'' that companies
     are using as a weapon ``to beat unions down.''
     
     A White House spokesman, Barry Toiv, said there was a ``long and
     well-established process'' of approving trade agreements by simple
     majorities of both houses of Congress.
     
     The lawsuit claims NAFTA has led to the loss of 400,000 American
     jobs, including 1,000 at the Huffy bicycle plant in Celina, Ohio.
     The company recently announced it was closing its plant there and
     would import more bicycle parts from Mexico and Asia to make up the
     difference.
     
     Jim Folk, president of the steelworkers local in Celina, said many
     of the workers are close to retirement age and will have a
     difficult time finding new work. Some 750 will be laid off at the
     end of July.
     
     ``It's a rural part of the state,'' he said. ``I don't think we can
     absorb 750 well-paying jobs.''
     
     The suit was filed in Alabama because about 250 workers have lost
     their jobs at a Goodyear plant in Gadsden, Ala.
     
     Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe, who argued in a 1995
     law review article that certain trade agreements are actually
     treaties, said in a telephone interview that NAFTA ``almost
     certainly'' should be considered a treaty.
     
     ``It's not like a bilateral agreement that leaves international
     obligations unchanged,'' he said. ``On the contrary, it's a major
     and enduring commitment to elaborate mechanisms of mutual
     enforcement which seem to me to implicate the treaty clause.''
     
     Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company
   
     The information contained in this AP Online news report
     may not be republished or redistributed
     without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.