U.S. unions lodge first Mexico labor grievance under new NAFTA
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[May 10, 2021]
By Daina Beth Solomon
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The AFL-CIO, the
biggest U.S. labor federation, on Monday will file the first petition
for the U.S. government to bring a labor complaint against Mexico under
the trade deal that replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement,
the union said.
The AFL-CIO's petition, which it shared with Reuters, states that
workers at the auto parts plant Tridonex in Matamoros, a Mexican city on
the border with Texas, were denied independent union representation in
violation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that
replaced NAFTA last year.
Since the 1994 NAFTA, which had few enforcement tools for labor rules,
wages in Mexico have stagnated and now rank as the lowest in the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a club of
37 industrialized nations.
The USMCA was designed to change that by giving more power to workers to
demand better salaries, which was also meant to prevent low labor costs
from leeching more U.S. jobs.
Reuters reported last week that hundreds of workers had sought to be
represented by a new union led by activist-attorney Susana Prieto since
2019, yet state labor officials never scheduled an election. Prieto said
600 of her supporters at Tridonex last year were fired, in what some
workers described as retaliation for their efforts to switch unions.
Tridonex's parent is Philadelphia-based Cardone Industries, which is
controlled by Canadian company Brookfield Asset Management.
Under USMCA's "Rapid Response Mechanism," firms in Mexico and the United
States can face tariffs and other penalties for failing to ensure worker
rights, such as freedom of association.
The AFL-CIO's petition marks the first time the trade deal's labor
enforcement is being put to use, and will be closely watched by
companies and labor activists.
"This is precedent-setting," said Cathy Feingold, director of the
international department of the AFL-CIO, which lobbied for better worker
rights provisions in the USMCA. "It's going to be a test for this new
system."
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Trucks wait in a queue for border customs control, to cross into the
U.S., at the Zaragoza-Ysleta border crossing bridge in Ciudad
Juarez, Mexico December 12, 2019. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez
The AFL-CIO will send its petition to the U.S. Office
of Trade and Labor Affairs, which has 30 days to review the claim
and determine whether to bring the case to the Mexican government
for further review.
Mexican labor officials would then work with U.S. counterparts to
agree on terms of remediation. The entire process, including a final
stage to determine potential sanctions and penalty fees, must be
resolved within five months.
"Most of this could get fixed pretty quickly if the political will
is there," said Benjamin Davis, director of international affairs
for the United Steelworkers, part of the AFL-CIO.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who signed a labor
reform into law in 2019, has vowed do away with Mexico's ubiquitous
protection contracts that critics say put company interests over
worker rights - also a priority of the USMCA.
Yet, the new law is being gradually rolled out throughout Mexico,
and changes will not start to reach Tamaulipas state, home to
Matamoros, until 2022.
Davis said Mexico still has an obligation to guarantee the reform is
playing out on the ground.
"The rights start right away, even if institutions aren't in place
yet," he said.
The petition was also backed by the Service Employees International
Union, which represents Cardone employees in the United States,
along with U.S. non-profit Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, and
Prieto's union, called SNITIS.
(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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