Labor leaders said union families will remember House lawmakers who voted for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) during next year's elections.

"Congress had an opportunity to act on behalf of workers here in the United States and across Central America by killing CAFTA," said Teamsters General Pres. James Hoffa. "Instead, Congress voted on the side of multinational corporations that want to sell off U.S. jobs to the lowest bidder. Americans should be outraged."

Hoffa thanked "those members who were true leaders in this battle, including Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Walter Jones (R-N.C.), for their outstanding leadership and strong determination in trying to defeat CAFTA."

"To those representatives who voted against this job-killing trade deal, I extend the gratitude of the 1.4 million members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters," Hoffa said. "To those who abandoned working families by voting for CAFTA, the Teamsters have taken notice."

The 217 to 215 vote on CAFTA was completed just after midnight on July 28–just days after the Teamsters, Service Employees, and four other unions withdrew from the AFL-CIO. The Senate approved the treaty a month earlier.

Fifteen of 202 Democrats in the House voted for the pact, while 27 out of 232 Republicans voted against it.

AFL-CIO Pres. John J. Sweeney said the representatives who voted for the treaty "should be ashamed." They "voted against American jobs," he said. "They voted against decent treatment for our Dominican and Central American brothers and sisters, and they voted against working families."

"Many of those who voted for CAFTA . . . know better," Sweeney said. "They know CAFTA won't magically end poverty or terrorism or illegal immigration. They know that CAFTA will send more decent-paying American jobs offshore–not create significant new export markets. They know that CAFTA will do nothing to improve U.S. competitiveness and stem our intractable trade deficit."

Sweeney said that "Republicans who voted for CAFTA chose party loyalty and corporate bucks over their constituents. Those Democrats who voted for CAFTA sided with big business over the working men and women who walked their neighborhoods, staffed their phone banks, and worked hard to put them in office."

"The labor movement will remember this vote," Sweeney said. He pledged that unions will continue to work for fair trade policies in conjunction with the "formidable progressive transnational trade alliance" that includes people of faith, human rights advocates, small farmers, environmentalists, and advocates for the poor in nations around the world.

The trade agreement, which was modeled on the North American Free Trade Agreement, would reduce tariffs with the Central American nations of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean.

According to news reports, lawmakers were under intense pressure from the Bush administration to pass the treaty. Both President Bush and Vice President Cheney visited the House on the scheduled day of the vote. The Washington Post reported that so many top officials in the Bush administration were lobbying in the Capitol that Democrats joked that the hallways looked like a Cabinet meeting.

Lawmakers told reporters that they were both bribed with "pork" projects and agricultural subsidies and threatened with cuts in funding for transportation and other projects. The Washington Post reported that many of the favors granted in exchange for pro-CAFTA votes were tucked into the energy and highway bills that were passed shortly after the CAFTA vote.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the political fallout of the CAFTA vote will haunt Bush. "As our manufacturing base erodes, as our industrial base erodes, we have a president who is contributing to the further erosion of that base," she said.

Rep. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) said CAFTA is the "first agreement in which we would move backwards in enforcing international labor standards." He said provisions protecting worker rights are weaker than those under the existing Caribbean trade agreement.

Democrats voting in favor of the agreement were Victor F. Snyder (Ark.), Melissa L. Bean (Ill.), Dennis Moore (Kan.), William J. Jefferson (La.), Ike Skelton (Mo.), Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), Edolphus Towns (N.Y.), Jim Cooper (Tenn.), John S. Tanner (Tenn.), Henry Cuellar (Texas), Ruben Hinojosa (Texas), Solomon P. Ortiz (Texas), Jim Matheson (Utah), James P. Moran Jr. (Va.), and Norman D. Dicks (Wash.).

Republicans voting against CAFTA were: Duncan Hunter (Calif.),Tom Tancredo (Colo.), Rob Simmons (Conn.), Connie Mack (Fla.), Charles Whitlow Norwood Jr. (Ga.), C.L. Otter (Idaho), Mike Simpson (Idaho), John No Hostettler (Ind.), Charles W. Bustany Jr. (La.), Bobby Jindal (La.), Thaddeus McCotter (Mich.), Candice S. Miller (Mich.), Gil Gutknect (Minn.), Dennis Rehberg (Mont.), Scott Barrett (N.J.), Frank LoBiondo (N.J.), Christopher H. Smith (N.J.), John M. McHugh (N.Y.), Howard Coble (N.C.), Virginia Foxx (N.C.), Walter Jones (N.C.), Patrick McHenry (N.C.), Robert W. Ney (Ohio), Ron Paul (Texas), Virgil H. Goode Jr. (Va.), Barbara Cubin (Wyo.), and Shelley Moore Capito (W. Va.).