Minutes of Meeting: November 8, 2000

I. Attendance

A. Attendance of Committee Members: The following committee members were present for all or part of the meeting: Linda Chavez-Thompson, Thomas R. Donahue, Frank Doyle, Anthony Freeman, John T. Joyce, William Lucy, and John J. Sweeney.

B. Attendance of State Department Employees: The following Department of State Employees were present for all or part of the meeting: Madeleine Albright, Secretary of State; Frank E. Loy, Under Secretary for Global Affairs; Harold Hongju Koh, Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor; Sandra Polaski, Special Representative for International Labor Affairs; Edmund McWilliams, Director, International Labor Affairs Office; Alden Irons, Deputy Director, International Labor Affairs Office; Eric Barboriak, Labor Officer, International Labor Affairs Office, Executive Secretary of the Advisory Committee on Labor Diplomacy; Laura Buffo, Labor Officer, International Labor Affairs Office; Ann Hudock, Special Assistant to the Undersecretary for Global Affairs; Mark Simonoff, Legal Assistant, Office of Legal Advisor, Peggy Kavanagh, Regional Affairs Office, Bureau of African Affairs; Scott Thayer, Office of Policy, Resources and Planning, Bureau of European Affairs; Bruce Malkin, Regional Affairs Office, Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs; John Muth, Regional Affairs Office, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.

C. Attendance of Department of Labor Employees: The following Department of Labor Employees were present for all or part of the meeting: James Perlmutter, Director of the Office of Foreign Relations; J. William Brumfield, Foreign Service Coordinator, International Labor Affairs Bureau; Robert Wholey, International Labor Affairs Bureau; Vivian Twisdale, International Labor Affairs Bureau; George White (State Department detailee), International Labor Affairs Bureau.

D. Attendance of USAID Employees: Michaela Meehan, Office of Democracy and Governance.

E. Attendance of Members of the Public: The following members of the public were present for all or part of the meeting: Barbara Shailor, Director, International Affairs Department, AFL-CIO; Alice Clark, Powell, Goldstein; Monique Roske, Coalition for Employment Through Exports; and Mark Cutler, Bureau of National Affairs; Herbert Weiner, Retired Labor Officer

II. Public Access: The meeting was open to the public.

III. Public Participation: No members of the public submitted oral or written statements to the Committee.

III. Reports Received by the Committee: The Committee received no reports.

IV. Matters Discussed at the Meeting

A. Morning Session Chairman Thomas Donahue called the meeting to order at approximately 09:30 a.m.

Mr. Donahue asked Sandra Polaski to summarize the initial response of the Department to the Advisory Committee report.

Ms. Polaski divided the recommendations into three categories: recommendations the Department is accepting in full, those that the Department is accepting with modifications; in other words, accepting in principle perhaps with some differences in the implementation details, or on others, accepting in part but needing further study. Ms. Polaski reported the Department has decided to reject one recommendation, leaving 15 that are being referred to a Working Group for further study.

Those in the "Accept" category are the following:

Recommendation 1.1, on the President's letter of instruction to Ambassadors;

Recommendation 1.2, which concerns consultations by Ambassadors and Deputy Chiefs of Missions to include labor issues before they go out to assume their posts.

Recommendation 3.2, regarding the recruitment of generalist Foreign Service Officers into labor positions.

Recommendation 3.3, emphasizing diversity in the Foreign Service, including and in particular among labor officer positions.

Recommendation 3.4, factoring in labor and other global experience as a factor in the ambassadorial selection process.

Recommendation 3.5, which is to continue and institutionalize the Joint Award for Excellence in Labor Diplomacy given by the Secretary of State and Secretary of Labor.

Recommendation 4.3, which is to continue and institutionalize the Labor Department/State Department Exchange Program.

Recommendation 6.2, which is to make permanent and institutionalize the Annual Worldwide Labor Officers Conference.

Those in the "Accept with Modification" category:

Recommendation 3.9, the placement of organized labor representatives on the Foreign Service selection boards.

The modification would be to invite organized labor representation, not to create a new separate institutional space, but to invite the participation. Organized labor representatives should be invited like other public representatives to serve on the selection panels, but a new separate position would not be created on them. And the assumption is if the labor movement could nominate candidates to serve who could spare the relatively intensive amount of time required, that those candidates would be welcomed.

Recommendation 4.1, which deals with a new inter-agency labor diplomacy committee between the Department of State and the Department of Labor.

There is agreement in principle that we should have a committee to help manage the exchange program. The recommendations in the report also call for a number of additional tasks to be assigned to that committee. Those additional tasks will be referred to the working group for further study and analysis.

Recommendation 5.2, which calls for making the Office of the Special Representative for International Labor Affairs permanent and to place it at the level of Assistant Secretary.

When the Secretary created this position, she had every intention to make it a permanent position, and it is; however, the question of rank will be referred to the working group for further study. Recommendation 5.8, which calls for a greater role of labor issues in the strategic planning process.

The importance of labor, international worker rights issues and labor issues in the strategic planning process is affirmed and will be continued; however, some of the recommendations with respect to the mission performance plans, what goes on at particular embassies, will be referred to the working group for further study.

Recommendation 6.1, labor-related training in the State Department.

The Department accepts that the labor-related training is an important part of our overall training program. The modification is to take advantage of current FSI, Foreign Service Institute programs and new training strategies while acknowledging the utility of a review of labor-related training. FSI is already providing quality labor-related training and continues to develop alternative training strategies that, with appropriate resource support, could improve labor-related training without recourse to more elaborate procedures.

The one recommendation that the Department has decided to reject is Recommendation 3.6, which is to consider a comprehensive reevaluation of whether or not the "up-or-out system" is serving the Department's modern-day needs with respect to the development of expertise in labor issues. The decision was that that recommendation could not be accepted, definitely not at this time.

The 15 recommendations that have not yet been decided, and those cases where aspects of recommendations have been referred for further study, will be assigned to a Working Group that is made up of representatives of all concerned bureaus in the Department. Frank Loy will chair that working group, and he has delegated the day-in/day-out responsibilities for that group to Assistant Secretary Harold Koh, who joined the meeting at that moment.

Assistant Secretary Koh convened the first meeting of the working group on November 7 with a long meeting and a full agenda, and the Secretary has asked that the working group review all of the remaining decisions and present a final report to her by December 15th, thereby allowing time for her to respond during her tenure to the entire scope of the report that the Committee presented to her.

There is an additional task that remains; and that is, on the recommendations that have been accepted in full or in part, there are implementation questions associated with most of them. In a few cases, it is continuing what we are already doing, and so there are no additional implementation questions, but in some cases there will be steps that must be taken. For example, in the letter of instruction to the ambassadors or in the consideration of labor and global experience in ambassadorial selection, there will have to be affirmative steps taken that can be detailed and time-consuming, and so we will also begin the process of starting to implement the recommendations that have been accepted.

Mr. Donahue inquired as to why no comment was made on Recommendation 2: the role of labor officers in the missions, the number of labor officers, new positions, senior labor officer posts, labor officers' time spent on labor issues, position of the labor officer and placement on the country team, support for labor officers in terms of technology and so forth.

Ms. Polaski responded that the recommendations contained in Recommendation 2 and in some other places are recommendations that have major resource implications. New money or reprogrammed money will have to be made available in order to implement those recommendations. The Department decided that all of the resource-intensive recommendations would be postponed until we have a budget.

Mr. Donahue asked about the disposition of recommendation 3.1, the labor promotion track. Ms. Polaski responded that this recommendation had been referred to the working group, and was on the agenda for the inaugural meeting of the Working Group. She added that there was little support in the Department for reestablishing a labor promotion track per se. She explained that when the track was abolished a few years ago, the Department perceived it was not serving its human resource interests, but also that it was not serving the interests of Labor Officers.

Within the Department, there is some interest in and sympathy for the idea of making changes in the approach that was substituted, which is the multi-functional promotion mechanism. The multi-functionality mechanism gives Foreign Service Officers who specialize in certain functional areas a second opportunity for promotion in addition to their normal "conal" promotion mechanism.

Many bureaus in the Department acknowledge that the new multi-functional promotion mechanism can be improved to be more responsive to the needs of the officers, but also to the Department's need to really have skilled expertise in a lot of areas, including labor. The Working Group will be studying ways to make that meaningful as an actual multi-function promotion.

Mr. Donahue inquired about Recommendation 4, the new inter-agency labor diplomacy committee.

Ms. Polaski explained that the report recommends that the inter-agency committee between Labor and State be established to oversee the exchange program, but also to do a number of other tasks, some of which go to other recommendations that are still under study. The decision by the Department at this point is to accept in principle the creation of a committee, and to recognize that one appropriate role for that committee is to review and deal with the exchange program.

If on the other substantive recommendations steps are taken that would further involve the Department of Labor, perhaps other responsibilities would be added. But at this point, the Department response is to accept in principle the establishment of an interagency committee with a mandate to review the operation of the exchange program.

In response to a further inquiry, Ms. Polaski pointed out that recommendations 5.4, 5.6, 5.7, and 5.8 involved resource questions and have therefore been deferred to the Working Group. Recommendation 5.1, which is the authority of the Special Representative for International Labor Affairs over labor officers and Recommendation 5.8 have also been referred to the working group.

Ms. Polaski mentioned recommendation 5.8, labor in the strategic planning process. The Office of International Labor Affairs continues to raise the profile of labor issues in strategic planning. Other initiatives such as the creation of the Special Representative for International Labor Affairs position, and the tripling of the number of officers working in the Office of International Labor Affairs, have also had a great impact on the strategic planning process. The question of mission performance plans is deferred for further study.

Mr. Perlmutter asked about the composition of the Working Group.

Ms. Polaski responded that the Working Group is made up of 17 members, including relevant functional bureaus and regional bureaus that have any interests and equities in these issues, are members of the Working Group.

(The Secretary of State entered the meeting.)

Mr. Donahue welcomed the Secretary of State and Counselor Amb. Wendy Sherman to the meeting and expressed the Advisory Committee's gratitude for their efforts within the Department.

Under Secretary Loy introduced the Secretary, pointing to her efforts to increase the profile of labor diplomacy in the Department of State, including the creation of the position of Special Representative for International Labor Affairs and the establishment of the Advisory Committee on Labor Diplomacy. He mentioned the Secretary was motivated by her realization that the role of organized labor overseas can be an important tool in U.S. foreign policy, especially in countries in transition to democracy.

(Secretary Albright's comments are included in full in Appendix A.)

Secretary Albright thanked Chairman Donahue and the Advisory Committee for its efforts and reaffirmed the importance of labor diplomacy in U.S. foreign policy. She stressed the importance of core labor standards in the spread of democracy. Secretary Albright mentioned her extreme satisfaction with the Special Representative for International Labor Affairs, a position the Department will be making permanent at an appropriate rank. She also pointed out that the Department had tripled the size of the Office of International Labor Affairs over the past 18 months and increased the number of Foreign Service Officers in overseas labor positions by 50 percent. She stated that an increase in personnel must be accompanied by an increase in awareness among all U.S. diplomats of the importance of the labor issues.

The Secretary stated she had directed a review of the Advisory Committee's report to be chaired by Under Secretary for Global Affiars Frank Loy, Counselor Ambassador Wendy Sherman, and Under Secretary for Management Bonnie Cohen. Preliminary consensus was reached on almost half of the recommendations: eight accepted unconditionally.

The Secretary commented specifically on Recommendations 1.1, 1.2, 3.5, and 6.2.

The Secretary announced that Under Secretary Loy and Assistant Secretary Koh would chair a Working Group to study the remaining recommendations on which consensus was not reached. The Working Group will place these recommendations within the context of overall U.S. foreign policy priorities and resources. The Working Group will report to the Secretary by mid-December.

The Secretary thanked Mr. Sweeney for his efforts on behalf of the labor diplomacy program, stating that if properly understood and presented, supporting international worker rights is work that any administration of either political party should be prepared to enhance and support.

The Secretary closed her remarks by again thanking the Advisory Committee for its efforts and wishing them success in their deliberations on the interagency process.

Mr. Donahue took this opportunity to recognize the work of Mark Simonoff, the former executive secretary to the Advisory Committee, as well as his successor, Eric Barboriak.

Mr. Sweeney thanked Secretary Albright for her leadership and efforts to promote U.S. labor diplomacy. Mr. Sweeney also thanked Mr. Donahue for his efforts as chairman and complimented the State Department staff members who have assisted the Committee, particularly Sandra Polaski.

Mr. Sweeney also praised the Administration for its inclusion of labor considerations in the Jordan Free Trade Agreement.

Assistant Secretary Koh described the proceedings of the Working Group, mentioning that it had already initiated its work on November 7. He went on to emphasize that global issues should be given more prominence in the promotion process.

Mr. Sweeney asked whether the Department of Labor would be represented in the Working Group.

Ms. Polaski answered that the Department of State would first establish a consensus position on the recommendations and then negotiate with the Department of Labor on those issues relevant to the two agencies.

Mr. Perlmutter applauded the work of the Advisory Committee and the Department in strengthening U.S. labor diplomacy. He then expressed concern about the recommendation (4.1) regarding the new interagency diplomacy committee. He stressed that the partnership between the Departments of State and Labor had a significant impact in strengthening the labor dimension in trade agreements, in strengthening the number of labor officers overseas, integration of labor component into mission performance plans around the world, the strengthening of monitoring of worker rights abuses and remediation of those serious abuses. He hoped the Working Group would see the interagency committee as a vehicle to continue this partnership and would increase rather than limit the interagency committee's duties.

Mr. Doyle expressed his appreciation to Chairman Donahue and the rest of the Advisory Committee. Mr. Doyle asserted that if the business community strongly believes in open trade, it must face the reality that democratic societies and free trade union movements are also necessary. The Advisory Committee report is not only about labor, but an expression of U.S. society's belief that if our foreign trading partners want free trade with the United States, those trading partners should have free workers.

Mr. Sweeney suggested organizing a meeting with key business representatives to discuss the Advisory Committee report.

Ms. Chavez-Thompson expressed her appreciation to the Secretary of State for the work of the State Department staff who have been involved with the Committee. Ms. Chavez-Thompson was particularly pleased that the State Department has embraced Recommendation 3.3 on diversity in the Foreign Service, which she believes particularly important to the success of the Foreign Service.

Mr. Lucy joined Ms. Chavez-Thompson in expressing his appreciation for the work of the committee and the support of the Department.

Mr. Lucy then asked about the disposition of recommendation 5.6 on the placement of a Labor Officer in the Bureau of Economics and Business Affairs.

Ms. Polaski stated that this recommendation was referred to the Working Group. She added that current staff in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs who deal with labor issues have an extremely strong cooperative relationship with the Office of International Labor Affairs. She mentioned that Al Larson, the Undersecretary for Economic Affairs, is very attuned to labor rights issues and works very closely with the Office of International Labor Affairs.

Under Secretary Loy interjected that cooperation between the Office of International Labor Affairs and the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs was shown clearly in the preparation of the Jordan Free Trade Agreement.

Mr. Donahue informed the Secretary of State that the Advisory Committee will next address the inter-agency processes involving labor issues and form recommendations for improving the processes if necessary.

Mr. Freeman inquired whether a mechanism would be put in place to allow for a dialogue between the Working Group and the Advisory Committee as the Working Group deliberates on the recommendations.

Assistant Secretary Koh described the basic function of the Working Group: resolve those recommendations on which the Group can achieve consensus; and refer recommendations on which no consensus exists to the Assistant Secretary level for resolution. By forwarding the final disposition of the recommendations to the Secretary by mid-December, she will have the opportunity to discuss the final results with the Committee.

Mr. Joyce thanked the Secretary of State for her efforts on behalf of the Advisory Committee. He went on to praise the employees of the State Department who worked with the Advisory Committee, adding that the Department has been able to reverse the erosion of interest in labor diplomacy.

Mr. Joyce expressed concern about Foreign Service Officers who specialize in labor. His own discussions with Foreign Service Officers in the labor specialty and in other areas of State Department operations around the world lead him to conclude that the State Department must have a cadre experienced Labor Officers, which means proper attention must be devoted to personnel retention and training.

Mr. Joyce stated he was optimistic that a way could be found to reconcile the State Department's desire for multi-functionality with Advisory Committee's identification of a need for a labor specialist cadre.

Assistant Secretary Koh responded by explaining that the State Department was attempting to integrate the labor function into the broader political and economic functions as a global issue, rather than in its own separate track.

As a final remark, Secretary Albright stated that the more the State Department is able to integrate the labor concept into the overall U.S. foreign policy concept, the more effective the Department will be, because officers will be better attuned to advancing the labor agenda if they understand how it fits into the larger foreign policy framework.

Mr. Joyce reiterated his position that generalists should be aware of labor issues, and that a cadre of specialists in labor must be maintained.

Mr. Donahue thanked the Secretary again, affirming that the very existence of the Advisory Committee has already had a salutary effect on labor issues within the Department of State.

(The Secretary of State departed the meeting.)

Mr. Doyle stressed that the State Department must have both an awareness of labor issues among generalists and a cadre of experts from which that awareness would originate. Both the training recommendations and the recommendation to re-examine the "up or out" system were designed to address these issues.

Mr. Donahue observed that in dealing with the individual recommendations, the Working Group might not take into account the broader context of the recommendations. He expressed concern that by dealing with the recommendations in piece-meal fashion, for example, simply rejecting the recommendation about the labor promotion track, the more general principles behind the recommendations would not be addressed.

Mr. Joyce added that the Advisory Committee must articulate a complete vision to the Working Group, providing it not only with the recommendations, but with a broader explanation of the basis for the recommendations.

Ms. Polaski described her role in representing the work of the Advisory Committee to the Working Group. She believed that in general, the report was detailed in its analysis and the basis for its recommendations were clear. She went on to say that though there was little support in the Department for instituting a labor promotion track, she believes the Department recognizes that the multi-functionality mechanism has not fully addressed the issue of Labor Officer promotion. She expressed the hope that the Department would embrace those ideas that would raise the importance of global issues. One example would be to make performance in a global function essential to promotion.

Mr. Donahue suggested leaving the specifics of the presentation of the Committee's views to Ms. Polaski. He raised the concern, however, that while the Advisory Committee is charged with reporting to the Secretary of State and the President, the Working Group in charge of forming a response to the recommendations includes persons from bureaus and offices whose interests may not always coincide with the Advisory Committee. While a working group is necessary for the orderly analysis of the recommendations, the decision to accept the recommendations rests with the Secretary of State.

Ms. Polaski described the Working Group procedures: those bureaus or offices with a primary responsibility over a given recommendation have the lead in guiding the Working Group discussions and forming consensus. Those recommendations upon which consensus cannot be reached will be referred to the Assistant Secretary level for resolution.

Mr. Sweeney expressed his hope that the Department would move expeditiously to address the recommendations of the Advisory Committee report by December 15. He also expressed concern that the Department of Labor and the White House were not represented on the Working Group.

Ms. Polaski explained that the Department of State was not seeking to exclude the Department of Labor from the Working Group discussions, but wanted first to seek an internal consensus on the recommendations and then subsequently, discuss relevant recommendations with the Department of Labor. White House involvement had never been considered, but this was an idea worth exploring.

Mr. Donahue established that it was the consensus of the Advisory Committee that the Department of Labor and the White House should be represented in the Working Group. Mr. Donahue also asked that the Office of International Labor Affairs seek input from Labor Officers in the field about the report.

Mr. Doyle also suggested the Working Group liaise with the Advisory Committee so that the Advisory Committee could amplify the basis of the recommendations and also offer clarifications when necessary.

Mr. Freeman echoed Mr. Doyle's remarks, encouraging dialogue between the Department and the Advisory Committee. He also expressed concern about the recommendation concerning the labor promotion track, stressing that strengthening the multi-functional precepts was not sufficient to guarantee promotions when promotions were based on personnel and resource management experience, which is not always part of the Labor Officer function.

Mr. Doyle, Mr. Joyce, and Mr. Freeman engaged in a discussion of the recommendation pertaining to labor officer training. They asserted that before any training recommendations were rejected out of hand, the Department needed to prioritize labor-related training in the context of the overall current training curricula and to quantify the resources necessary to improve labor-related training.

Mr. Donahue offered that while the Advisory Committee understood the Department's prerogative in accepting or rejecting the Advisory Committee's recommendations, the Advisory Committee wanted to ensure that the Working Group understood the Advisory Committee's position on these important issues and would confer with the Office of International Labor Affairs to seek a mechanism to convey the Advisory Committee's concerns to the Working Group.

B. Afternoon Session

To initiate the discussion of the interagency process, Ms. Polaski offered the Advisory Committee a list of substantive labor issues that currently give rise to interagency consultation or would benefit from interagency coordination. (See Appendix B.)

Mr. Donahue suggested that the most expeditious way to address the broad interagency process topic would be to form two sub-committees:

• Trade and Private Investment
• Development and Public Investment

The Development and Public Investment Sub-Committee would consider USAID programs, bilateral investment treaties, U.S. government positions in the international financial institutions (IFI, World Bank, regional development banks) and the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy.

Issues related to the International Labor Organization and political issues in international trade policy would be addressed later.

Linda Chavez-Thompson agreed to chair the Trade and Private Investment Sub-Committee. She will be joined by Frank Doyle.

Anthony Freeman agreed to chair the Development and Public Investment Sub-Committee. He will be joined by William Lucy and John Joyce.

Chairman Donahue and John Sweeney will attend both sub-committee deliberations when possible.

Mr. Perlmutter offered to serve on the Development and Public Investment Sub-Committee and said other Department of Labor officials would serve on the Trade and Private Investment Sub-Committee. He also requested that Department of Labor Deputy Under Secretary Andrew Samet participate in both.

Having concluded sub-committee business, Mr. Donahue read the Secretary of State's letter of thanks to the Advisory Committee into the record.. (The full text of the letter is at Appendix C.)

Ms. Shailor of the AFL-CIO commented that the Director-General of the International Labor Organization was favorably impressed by the Advisory Committee report and suggested that the recommendations included in the report could be used as a template for labor diplomacy programs in other countries.

As there was no other business, Mr. Donahue adjourned the meeting at approximately 3:00 p.m.

APPENDIX A

11/08/00: Remarks by Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright

APPENDIX B: International Labor Issues for Interagency Coordination

The following is an initial list of substantive international labor issues that currently give rise to interagency consultations on a regular or occasional basis, or that would benefit from interagency coordination.

Trade

• Bilateral trade negotiations (Jordan, Cambodia, etc.)
• Multilateral trade negotiations (WTO, FTAA, APEC, etc.)
• GSP petitions
• Other trade preference programs (CBI, CBPTA, AGOA, etc.)
• Committee on International Textile Agreements (CITA)
• Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations

• USAID work on labor issues
• OPIC petitions
• Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs)-review of US template agreement and worker rights issues
• US government positions on the following issues:
• International Financial Institutions' work on labor issues
• Policy coordination between UN institutions such as the ILO and the IFIs on labor issues
• G7/G8 positions on the above issues
• Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy

• President's Committee
• TAPILS and other matters related to ILO conventions
• Division of responsibilities between agencies and coordination of agencies' work with the ILO

It would be desirable for the subcommittees to prioritize the work at the outset, perhaps dropping issues that are judged to be of secondary importance or where the interagency process appears to be successful as currently operated.

APPENDIX C

Text of Letter from
Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright
To Chairman Thomas R. Donahue,
Advisory Committee on Labor Diplomacy

":Dear Tom: I am pleased to receive a copy of the Advisory Committee on Labor Diplomacy report 'A World of Decent Work: Labor Diplomacy for the New Century. In order to respond fully to the advisory Committee's report, I am initiating an internal review, include an in-depth analysis and recommendations from relevant offices of the Department of State. Please accept my sincere thanks to you and the members of the Advisory Committee for your hard work and dedication to the important task of strengthening U.S. labor diplomacy. Sincerely,

Madeleine K. Albright"

[end of document]

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