31.   Stark said poor countries, in attempting to meet IMF and World Bank criteria, lower labor standards and discard environmental protections.

32.   TEAMSTERS PROTEST COKE AT MEETING The Teamsters union demanded that Coca-Cola adopt and enforce strict labor standards for the manufacture of its products around the world.

33.   The case would probably be heard in U.S. District Court in New York, where the players union filed its original complaint accusing the owners of violating labor standards.

34.   The bill would give the president limited power to link environmental and labor standards to trade agreements.

35.   The intention is to preserve labor standards at home by raising them abroad.

36.   The low-wage countries, who fear that labor standards will bar their products, shunted the labor issue off to the ILO.

37.   The most controversial proposal involved an attempt to link trade with labor standards to ensure that workers from all WTO nations enjoy basic rights, such as collective bargaining.

38.   The only specific bill they recalled voting differently on was a measure involving labor negotiating standards.

39.   The problem for competing firms is that the force of the market makes it difficult for any single company to pay higher wages or insist on superior labor standards.

40.   The partnership would create a permanent association to decide whether companies met defined labor standards.