POLITICS 88 : Dukakis, Helped by Kennedy, Calls for Tough Trade Policy in UAW Talk

FLINT, Mich. — Seeking the union label for his presidential bid, Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis on Friday called for a tough trade policy and said: “We’re not going to sit on the sidelines while our neighbors are thrown out of work.”

Dukakis, with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) as his warm-up act, made a strong pitch to a SRO crowd at United Auto Workers Local 599 headquarters for support in next Saturday’s Democratic caucuses in Michigan.

In a region of high unemployment, with auto plants laying off workers, Dukakis promised: “We’re going to insist on fair trade--with Japan, with Europe, with Canada, with all our trading partners.”

Seeks to Blunt Gephardt

The tough tone was intended to head off competition from Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, who is advocating legislation that could impose tough quotas and other sanctions on imported goods.

Dukakis has denounced Gephardt’s approach as protectionist, but he still is seeking to appeal to union members and their families concerned about the flood of imports, particularly automobiles.

He did not go into detail on how his program would differ from Gephardt’s. He said he believed the President already has adequate authority to protect jobs from unfair trade practices, but that President Reagan is not using that power effectively.

Dukakis, with strong backing from Kennedy, wrapped himself in the mantle of President John F. Kennedy’s “New Frontier.” Dukakis said his election, like President Kennedy’s in 1960, would follow eight “amiable but rather sleepy years” of Republican rule.

Kennedy, invoking the names of his brothers, said that Dukakis was an ally of working men and women.

‘I Must Love Mike Dukakis’

Offering “hope for families was important to President Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and it is important to Gov. Dukakis,” Kennedy said. He joked in a thick Irish brogue about his dedication to the Dukakis campaign, saying: “Here I am a day after St. Patrick’s Day in Flint, Mich.--I must love Mike Dukakis.”

Dukakis said his presidency would establish basic health insurance coverage for all citizens, a promise that drew a big cheer from the crowd. Dukakis and Kennedy continued their strong appeal for union support for the Massachusetts governor at another UAW rally later in the day in Bay City, Mich.

Kennedy is a potent weapon in Dukakis’ war for the hearts and votes of auto workers, an important group in this heavily unionized state.

“Teddy Kennedy is very popular with our members,” said a United Auto Workers official, who is maintaining the union’s formal public policy of political neutrality.

“Kennedy certainly knows how to talk to UAW people, and he is very effective for Dukakis,” the official said.

Dukakis has won the backing of Douglas Fraser, former UAW president, and is trying to roll up endorsements from local union leaders all across the state.

The Massachusetts governor is taking pains to demonstrate that he has broad support, hoping to dispel the image of the cool technocrat whose appeal is largely limited to white-collar professionals and affluent liberals.

Union members “know I’m not just a guy who talks about jobs,” Dukakis said. “I work with union members to create jobs, hundreds of thousands of jobs.”

During his travels Friday in Michigan and in a brief stop in Topeka, Kan., Dukakis combined his rhetoric about job creation and economic policy with vigorous attacks on the Reagan Administration’s foreign policy.

Assails Troop Use

He lashed out at the President’s decision to send troops to Honduras and accused the Administration of being “obsessed” with efforts to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

The overwhelming majority of the American people want to “call on the President to end this and bring the troops back,” he said at Mason Junior High School in Drayton Plains, Mich.