<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Here’s the case filing: <a href="https://aflcio.org/sites/default/files/2018-01/NAALC%20submission%20JAN%2025%202018%20with%20UNT.pdf" target="_blank" style="color: purple; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;" class=""><span style="font-size: 9.5pt;" class="">https://aflcio.org/sites/default/files/2018-01/NAALC%20submission%20JAN%2025%202018%20with%20UNT.pdf</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;" class=""> </span><br class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">INSIDE US TRADE<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><h1 style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 24pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">AFL-CIO joins with Mexican union to file NAFTA complaint with the Labor Department<o:p class=""></o:p></h1><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">January 25, 2018 <o:p class=""></o:p></div><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">U.S. and Mexican unions will file a complaint with the U.S. Labor Department claiming Mexico is violating its NAFTA labor obligations,<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trade-nafta-labor-exclusive/exclusive-u-s-mexican-unions-to-file-nafta-complaint-over-labor-bill-idUSKBN1FE1ZE" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class="">Reuters reported on Thursday</a> – a move timed to affect ongoing talks about retooling the agreement.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The AFL-CIO told Reuters that it was joining with Mexico's UNT in appealing to the Labor Department.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">More from Reuters:<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The complaint, seen by Reuters, argues that Mexico’s proposed labor law amendments to implement constitutional reforms will violate the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation. It seeks efforts from the United States to prevent the measures from being implemented and to demand changes to bring Mexico into compliance.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">“Simply by promoting this bill, which aims to undermine the constitutional reforms, the government of Mexico brazenly violates the central obligations of the NAALC – namely to ‘provide high labor standards’ and to ‘strive to improve those standards,'” the AFL-CIO and Mexico’s UNT National Workers Union said in the complaint.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Talks to overhaul the trade deal have been dogged by U.S. threats to withdraw from the pact, but the foreign ministers of Mexico and Canada on Thursday struck an upbeat note on future negotiations.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The report quotes the AFL-CIO's Celeste Drake lamenting the U.S. proposals on labor in the ongoing NAFTA renegotiation talks – and saying the timing of the complaint, during the sixth round of negotiations in Montreal this week, was no accident.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">“It gives ammunition at the negotiating table to U.S. and Canadian negotiators to say, ‘Your violations on NAFTA are not in the past, they’re not over with,'” Drake said.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">More than 180 lawmakers told U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer this week that <a href="https://insidetrade.com/node/161709" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class="">new NAFTA labor rules must be enforceable</a> and must address wages in Mexico, and that Mexico must make progress on labor issues before Congress votes on a new agreement.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">“The text USTR has currently proposed must therefore only be a starting point in our negotiations with Mexico,” the lawmakers wrote in <a href="https://insidetrade.com/node/161702" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class="">a Jan. 23 letter</a>. “Any new NAFTA must have strong, clear and binding provisions that address Mexico’s labor conditions. Given the ingrained resistance to labor rights in Mexico, we must demand real and identifiable progress on labor reforms take place before Congress votes on a renegotiated NAFTA.”</p></div></body></html>