[CTC] La Jornada || Unions in the United States demand USMCA reforms

[Arthur Stamoulis]

*Unions in the United States demand USMCA reforms in their country*
LA JORNADA (fast translation)
October 6, 2025
https://www.jornada.com.mx/noticia/2025/10/06/economia/sindicatos-de-eu-exigen-reforzar-revisiones-del-tmec-en-su-pais
*Washington and New York, *unions in the United States are demanding that
the negotiations to renew the USMCA include the expansion of labor
mechanisms, applied almost exclusively to Mexico, to also address the lack
of labor rights in that area in U.S. territory.
"We fully welcome our brothers and sisters in Mexico to push for increased
labor rights in the United States," said Jason Wade, senior adviser to the
president of the 1 million-strong UAW national auto union.
"If our Mexican colleagues are not aware, in Texas, Mississippi and
Louisiana, workers today effectively have no rights under the National
Labor Relations Act," he said.
Regional courts are upholding determinations by state authorities that the
federal agency charged with protecting labor rights is unconstitutional and
therefore companies should not recognize its authority or demands.
Thus, if a worker files a complaint alleging unfair and law-breaking labor
practices in those states, a company need only assert that they do not
recognize the authority of the federal National Labor Relations Board or
its actions in enforcing the law or fine it for violating labor standards.
"There is an urgent need within the United States" to reject this, Wade
said.
Roxanne Brown, international vice president of the national steelworkers'
union, United Steelwokers (USW), agrees.
"We need to keep fighting, putting pressure on governments across the
United States, Canada, and supporting democratic unions, and not just in
Mexico, but across North America," he said in a media session organized by
the organization Rethink Trade.
The USW represents 1.2 million active and retired workers in the United
States and Canada.
These comments were offered around a new report by Rethink Trade assessing
the effectiveness of the Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM).
Lori Wallach, director of Rethink Trade, praised the RRM incorporated into
the USMCA when it was first enacted as an example for future agreements.
"Tens of thousands of workers won independent unions, which negotiated
collective rights that were accepted and raised their wages," he said. "But
over time, these advances have slowed."
In a document on its website, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare in
Mexico reported that the RRM is "designed to repair violations of the
rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining in companies
that produce goods or provide services that are traded between the USMCA
countries."
In fact, during its first five years, it has only been applied around
complaints from workers or unions in Mexico or by their allies in the
United States. In all these cases, a panel of experts evaluates the
complaint, decides whether it meets the conditions for follow-up, and,
after that, consultations with the government of Mexico begin.
The mechanism sets a four-month deadline for action on the complaint, and
if a company commits repeated violations that are not resolved, its exports
to the United States and Canada can be banned.
In theory, U.S. workers can file complaints before this mechanism of the
USMCA about labor rights violations in the United States, but in practice
this has not happened.
Moreover, officials in the United States believe that complaints cannot be
filed under the RRM until all possible legal remedies in U.S. courts have
been exhausted.
In Mexico, on the other hand, complaints can be filed even before any
domestic legal avenue has been used.
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