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(CNSNews.com) -- Three U.S. House Democrats, considered "vulnerable incumbents" by their party, voted Thursday to support a controversial trade agreement despite a threat from union leaders that those members would be cut off from further union financial help.

Reps. Melissa Bean (Ill.), Jim Matheson (Utah) and Dennis Moore (Kan.) were among the 15 Democrats who supported the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The measure, which would create a free-trade zone between the United States and six Latin American countries -- Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua -- passed the House by only two votes, 217 to 215.

"I support trade agreements when, on balance, they encourage job growth and market expansion that will benefit our local economy," Bean said in a statement released last Friday. "While not perfect, CAFTA is designed to provide such benefits, and I will vote for it for that reason."

Bean also said that expanded markets for companies in her district -- including Boeing, Kraft and Motorola -- outweighed opponents' concerns that the agreement did not adequately protect the environment and workers' rights.

The announcement drew a sharp response from the presidents of 20 unions, who said in a letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and officials of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) that "there must be real and measurable consequences for opposing labor on this issue.

"We recognize that the party and House Democrats are not homogeneous, that every member has a right to vote his or her conscience on all issues, including CAFTA," the union officials stated.

"But this letter is to make it clear that we find it both objectionable and unacceptable" that party leaders and the DCCC urge unions to support "vulnerable incumbents" when "some of these members are poised to desert labor on this core issue."

Bean, Matheson and Moore were singled out in the letter as "Frontline Candidates" -- incumbents considered most vulnerable in the 2006 election by the DCCC, but who benefited from a union event the previous week that raised nearly $300,000.

"Our work to help elect at-risk members, at your urging, will not extend to those who vote against us on this issue," the union leaders stated. "As such, we hope that you will also convey to them that we believe those who receive our support have an obligation to vote with us on CAFTA."

Noting that "partnership is a two-way street," the labor presidents added that "the stakes are too high for the workers of America. We cannot and we will not give any Democrat a pass on CAFTA."

The letter was initiated by Harold Schaitberger, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, and was signed by the leaders of unions ranging from Andrew Stern of the Service Employees International Union to Edward McElroy of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

Nevertheless, all three members of Congress mentioned in the letter voted in favor of CAFTA.

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