The U.S. Department of Labor may be erroneously certifying thousands of workers as victims of the North American Free Trade Agreement, according to employment specialists. Workers whose jobs have disappeared due to increased imports from Mexico are eligible for an array of retraining benefits, relocation payments and an extra year's unemployment benefits.

But, according to critics, many whose jobs disappeared through no fault of NAFTA are cashing in as well -- whether they ask for benefits or not.

• For example, Labor certified 135 saw-mill workers in Washington state who were laid-off because the mill could not get any logs -- due to the closing of forest lands to logging to protect the spotted owl.

• So far, nearly $100 million in federal cash and benefits has been handed out by federal bureaucrats to those they deemed victims of NAFTA.

• More than 125,000 workers have been certified eligible for special NAFTA aid -- although some never collected because they got new jobs.

• While experts accuse Labor of "superficial" analysis and administration of the program, department employees contend they don't have to show a causal link between NAFTA and the layoffs -- only that imports of this or that product from Canada or Mexico increased while U.S. workers making the same general item were laid off.

Moreover, the Clinton administration is about to release an analysis of NAFTA's impact. Overstatement of the worker displacement figures will be used by labor union leaders and other free-trade opponents as ammunition to defeat the proposed expansion of NAFTA to include Chile.

Observers say the Labor Department has been certifying a steadily higher number of aid applicants. Nearly four out of five have been certified this year -- compared with less than three out of five previously. In fact, the number of recipients rose 24 percent in the first four months of 1997.

What's more, Labor officials say they don't even have to consider the companies' explanations for their own firms' layoffs, since such explanations for the job cuts aren't considered authoritative.

"There is no way you can stretch your imagination to get this connected with NAFTA," said Pabst Brewery's director of industrial relations after the company shifted production from one aging brewery in Wisconsin to a new brewery in the same state. Time after time, analysts say, those are the same sentiments echoed by other employers faced with similar NAFTA-impact certifications.

Source: Bill Richards, "Layoffs Not Related to NAFTA can Trigger Special Help Anyway," June 30, 1997.