Trade Cases

Union Leaders Call for Labor Protections in NAFTA

October 15, 2017

Labor rights need to be at the forefront of NAFTA talks, assert leaders of the United Steelworkers and the United Autoworkers. In a joint statement on Oct. 12, United Steelworkers International President Leo W. Gerard and USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann challenged negotiators to craft a NAFTA agreement that “will raise standards, ensure they are enforced and provide growth and opportunity for workers in all three countries.”

“We know firsthand the impact of failed trade policies. That impact has been devastating. Since NAFTA, wage inequality has worsened and wage growth has stagnated in both Canada and the United States. Workers’ economic security has been eroded. In Mexico, wages and working conditions have fallen further behind and workers’ rights are suppressed on a regular basis.”

Gerard and Neumann stressed, “Rules of origin, investor-state dispute settlement, currency issues, and many others need to be addressed in any renegotiated agreement. But, without significant improvements in workers’ rights provisions, there will be little progress in any updated agreement. Working people will not share in any of the benefits their work helps to create.”

“It is time for our political leaders to keep the promises that were made and not bow to the special interests and free trade ideologues,” said the USW leadership. “We intend to work together. We intend to fight. And, we intend to win.”

UAW President Dennis Williams said in a statement, “NAFTA renegotiations will only be successful if it leads to higher wages for workers in all three countries and puts an end to our crippling auto trade deficit with Mexico.”

“In 1993, the United States had an automotive trade deficit with Mexico of $3.5 billion,” said Williams. “By 2016 that deficit had grown to $45.1 billion. For auto parts, the United States’ deficit with Mexico was $100 million in 1993; it was 200 times larger by 2016, at $23.8 billion.”

Williams made clear that Mexican autoworkers, who average earnings of $3.00 per hour or less, are not to blame for NAFTA’s failures. He instead blamed multinational corporations for outsourcing jobs to Mexico.

“Labor standards continue to be dismal, since Mexican workers are prevented from exercising their rights and bargaining for better wages and working conditions,” Williams said.

“If multinational corporations remain in the driver’s seat, NAFTA renegotiations will not succeed and working people will continue to suffer. We cannot let that happen.”