Labor group may press Obama on China sanctions

US President-elect Barack Obama may be pressured by labor forces into threatening China with trade sanctions early next year, Reuters reported. An official with the AFL-CIO labor federation said the body may resubmit a petition calling into question China’s treatment of its workers, and raise the issue with the Obama administration in early 2009. The AFL-CIO, America’s largest labor organization, had filed petitions in both 2004 and 2006 asking the Bush administration to investigate whether China’s "persistent denial of basic workers rights" had given it an unfair trade advantage over the US. The Bush administration rejected both requests as well as three other petitions asking the US to investigate whether China was manipulating its currency.