THURSDAY: Update on USMCA, the Fight for Workers’ Rights from Susana Prieto, Lawyers Involved in First Labor Enforcement Cases
New Analysis Will Be Released on Mexico’s Lagging Labor Reform Implementation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 25, 2021
CONTACT: Matt Groch mgroch@citizen.org (202) 454-5111
WHAT: Event on the major recent developments on the fight for workers’ rights under the labor provisions of the revised NAFTA. Representatives of Mexican and U.S. trade unions and civil society groups will discuss the recent efforts to enforce the new rights and guarantees established in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Additionally, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch will present a new analysis of the delayed phase-in of Mexico’s new labor justice system. which was one of the key commitments undertaken by Mexico when NAFTA was renegotiated in 2018. The report reviews which Mexican states will be in compliance and by what date, based on states’ share of foreign direct investment, industrial activity, labor conflicts and more.
WHO: Susana Prieto Terrazas, SNITIS MOVEMENT 20/32, labor lawyer and activist
Benjamin Davis, United Steelworkers, Director of International Affairs
Rachel Micah Jones, Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc., Executive Director
Daniel Rangel, Public Citizen, Research Director of Global Trade Watch
Lori Wallach, Public Citizen, Director of Global Trade Watch (Moderator)
WHEN: Thursday, May 27 at 11:00 a.m. E.T.
HOW: Press can register here.
BACKGROUND: In May 2021, the first two labor rights enforcement cases were filed under the revised NAFTA’s novel Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM). The cases were initiated almost exactly two years after Mexico enacted a new reformed national labor law, which implemented 2017 Mexican constitutional labor reforms, as well as new labor obligations under the revised NAFTA. The RRM is a targeted, facility-specific enforcement mechanism unique to the USMCA that is devised to protect workers’ right to organize.
Subsequently, the Mexican government notified the United States that it intended to activate the state-state dispute settlement relating to concerns about the “lack of application” of labor laws in the U.S. agriculture and meatpacking industries, particularly with respect to migrant workers. This is not the first USMCA enforcement attempt related to the working conditions of migrant workers in the United States. On March 23, Mexican migrant workers, Maritza Perez and Adareli Ponce, and a binational coalition of groups led by Centro de los Derechos del Migrante petitioned the Mexican government requesting that it initiate a state-state enforcement claim relating to a U.S. breach of USMCA labor rules related to gender-based discrimination in the H-2 non-immigrant worker visa program.
The first RRM case filed, focusing on the continuous attempts of Tridonex – an auto parts manufacturer based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas – to prevent its workers from organizing and being represented by an independent union, highlights a key shortcoming of the Mexico’s labor reform implementation: Establishment of new labor justice bodies was postponed for years in the most industrialized and labor-troubled states of the country. Having the new institutions operational in more Mexican states is critical to ending the ongoing collusion between corporations, employer-controlled unions and government officials that has undermined Mexican workers’ rights and interests for decades.
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