[CTC] AFL-CIO’s Trumka to lead NAFTA-focused delegation to Mexico City next week

Thu Aug 29 10:07:34 PDT 2019

AFL-CIO’s Trumka to lead USMCA-focused delegation to Mexico City next week
Inside US Trade, August 29, 2019 at 12:01 PM

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and a delegation of U.S. labor leaders are set to visit Mexico City next week to seek “guarantees” from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and other officials that Mexico will uphold its obligations and dedicate necessary resources outlined in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

The delegation, which will represent a “broad smattering” of U.S. labor sectors, will hold meetings with López Obrador, Labor Secretary Luisa María Alcalde and other officials and prominent lawmakers, Trumka told reporters on Thursday.

“Mexico has yet to demonstrate that it has the resources and the infrastructure to follow-through on its promised reforms,” Trumka said. “And trade without enforcement is a windfall for corporations and a disaster for workers, but we want to get to yes. If Mexico can’t ensure our workers’ ability to bargain higher wages through real unions … [the deal] is a non-starter.”

The labor group's trip will follow a congressional delegation visit <https://insidetrade.com/node/166954> to Mexico in July, which involved several members of the House Democrats' USMCA working group as well as House Ways & Means Committee members. House Ways & Means trade subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) called the trip “fascinating, instructive and a little bit sobering,” while Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) decried the on-the-spot denial of the group's request to visit a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company facility.

López Obrador will have to show the delegation “how Mexico will guarantee workers’ right to raise wages through free and democratic unions,” Trumka said.

“The first thing I want to know is -- what’s the plan? How are you going to do it? How much resources are you prepared to devote to it? Convince me that you have not only the will -- I think he is acting in good faith -- but you have the…infrastructure to get it done. That’s why I’m going to meet with him,” he said.

Mexico's government plans to determine the allocation of resources for the implementation of its labor reform efforts next month, when it releases its 2020 budget outline <https://insidetrade.com/node/166897>.

Trumka cited a “minimum of 700,000 protectionist contracts in Mexico” that must be eliminated, saying until that happens, “we won’t be able to see wages rise the way they should be."

He also pointed to a slew of challenges <https://insidetrade.com/node/166743> filed by employer-dominated unions in Mexico questioning the constitutionality of newly passed labor legislation required by USMCA, in addition to the resources needed to create a new court system.

“They have promised to change their labor laws; they have done so. However, there are almost a thousand challenges lodged by those protectionist unions against those and in one case they got an injunction against enforcement of the new law,” he continued. “They promised to create a new court system, create a new Department of Labor, to train people, to do away with all 700,000 of those protectionist contracts and have an election in 700,000 places in four years.”

Trumka questioned Mexico’s capacity to accomplish all of that. “That means each year, they have to do away with 175,000 contracts and hold 175,000 new elections. Our Department of Labor is incapable of doing that,” he said.

In June, Mexico submitted to Capitol Hill a “proposed roadmap <https://insidetrade.com/node/166754>” showing how it plans to implement its labor law reforms through 2023. The undated roadmap sets annual benchmarks the country plans to meet when implementing the labor law passed by the Mexican legislature earlier this year.

But if USMCA was put to an “up-or-down vote” in Congress right now, the AFL-CIO, which is the largest federation of unions in the U.S., would oppose it, Trumka reiterated. “Without the support of the labor movement and in the United States and Mexico and Canada, the new NAFTA will meet the same fate as the [Trans-Pacific Partnership],” he said.

President Trump has repeatedly claimed that unions back USMCA, doing so again during a radio interview on Thursday.

The House Democrats' USMCA working group continues to negotiate with USTR officials on ways to address outstanding issues with the deal’s labor, enforcement, biologics and environment language.

Asked about the progression of the talks between the administration, Congress and stakeholders, Trumka said he has a “good working relationship” with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and believes everyone is “trying to get to yes.”

The House Ways & Means Committee did not respond to a request for comment on the status of the talks

As for proposals to resolve an arbitration panel-blocking issue with the deal’s state-to-state dispute settlement mechanism language, Trumka said “we’ve talked about changing that and I think there is probably a likelihood that can be done.”

Ahead of the August recess, USTR was said to be considering a “rapid response” enforcement mechanism that borrowed from a proposal introduced by Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden (OR) and Sherrod Brown (OH). That proposal would enable all parties to collaborate in identifying factory-level violations and draws from a verification tool utilized in the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement. -- Isabelle Hoagland (ihoagland at iwpnews.com <mailto:ihoagland at iwpnews.com>)

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826

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