To win Democrats' support, the White House will have to accept some of their demands for stronger labor provisions in future trade accords.

President Bush has already threatened to veto legislation creating a new department if his labor provisions are deleted.

The administration defends the labor provisions as groundbreaking.

"We want the labor provision," he said, "so we can get a real adjustment to our budget."

A bigger complication, though, is whether the labor provisions would apply to other railroads; that question helped sidetrack the House last week.

"If you are going to give us the labor provision, come help us," he said.

The Democrats also argue that the trade agreement's labor provisions don't go far enough to protect workers in the six other countries.

Mr. Thomas said that on the contrary, the labor provisions were the best of any United States trade agreement.

And he voted initially to give the president authority to negotiate trade agreements as long they contained certain labor provisions.

Many of the labor provisions reappeared in the Wagner Act of 1935.