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NAFTA Has Failed; New Development Plan Needed |
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The governments of the United States, Canada and Mexico must take serious and comprehensive measures to address the dual impact of the global economic recession and the 15-year legacy of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), labor leaders of the three countries said in a joint declaration.
The “Tri-National Labor Declaration on Social and Economic Prosperity for North America” points out that the Leaders Summit in Mexico City earlier this week was an opportunity to lay out a new agenda for North America, one that could make our region competitive, sustainable and just.
NAFTA did not create thousands of promised good jobs—the jobs it did create were less stable, with lower wages and fewer benefits, the leaders said. Increased trade largely benefited the corporate elite in all three countries, and income inequality has also grown in the region, they said. And the economic crisis has only exacerbated the problems.
These problems must be addressed through an open process that includes workers and unions, said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, Canadian Labor Congress President Kenneth Georgetti and Francisco Hernández Juárez, co-president of the Mexican Unión Nacional de Trabajordes (UNT).
Fixing the many flaws in NAFTA is only one part of the challenge the North American nations face, the leaders said. We also need to work together to address a number of pressing issues, which include labor law reform, migration and development and the promotion of the rule of law.
Specifically, they called for:
- The United States, Mexico and Canada must fully comply with the core labor rights of the International Labor Organization (ILO), including freedom of association and the right to organize and bargain collectively. All three countries restrict the freedom to form unions, both in law and practice, they said.. The North American countries must ensure that workers can exercise their most basic and fundamental rights or face appropriate sanctions.
- Ensure that all workers, regardless of immigration status, are protected by labor laws and able to exercise their fundamental human rights. They said NAFTA’s failure to create decent jobs forced many workers, especially those in Mexico, to search for employment in other countries. In the U.S. and Canada, on the other hand, employers with access to a large and poorly regulated workforce of undocumented and temporary migrant workers have undermined all workers by failing to afford the basic labor rights and protections to everyone.
- Foster economic development in all three countries by helping to stimulate more robust, equitable and sustained economic growth. In exchange for investment in Mexico’s economy—the poorest of the three—Mexico should agree to changes in laws and institutions to better protect the rights of Mexican workers and allow their income to rise as their economy grows.
- Rebuild our industrial base, which is essential for maintaining our living standards. As high-wage countries in a globalizing world, we must restore our competitiveness by developing national industrial strategies centered on innovation.
- Make a true commitment to the rule of law to end human rights violations in Mexico committed by police and the military. At the same time, the United States should reduce the demand for illegal narcotics and stem the flow of arms to the drug cartels, but also foster respect for human rights and an end to impunity for Mexican security forces.
Without serious consideration and incorporation of these dimensions—repairing the critical flaws in NAFTA, effective and authentic compliance with international labor standards, migration and sustainable development, and human rights and rule of law—the vital and essential security agenda involving our three nations ultimately will not succeed, the leaders said.
In conclusion, the leaders added, it is time
to recalibrate our relationship and focus on a path built upon shared economic growth and sustainable development.
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Everybody already knows that NAFTA sucks! The REAL question is, what is the almighty ALF-CIO prepared to DO about Obama’s betrayal of his campaign promise to renegotiate this crappy deal? Is the almighty AFL-CIO prepared to BREAK with their Democratic Party bosses and 1) create a Workers Party, for ordinary people not millionaires and 2) organize march on Washington in our millions to DEMAND the overthrow of NAFTA?
Or are we to sit back and watch the AFO-CIO defend its political choice to support OBAMA no matter what he does to earn or deserve that support?
In Solidarity
Free trade is a disaster. For the US! Our government did not have OUR best interests at heart when they came up with this one. But, then, it seems to me they seldom do have our best interests at heart. NAFTA absolutely needs to be renegotiated. And the first change needs to be the third word. It should be FAIR, NOT free! It’s like the old saying goes, NOTHING in life is free! And in this case we have our huge trade deficit to prove it.
Hate to disagree somewhat with all of you but we live in a different time than when my father was a union organizer and member of the AFL-CIO as a steelworker in the mills in Gary, IN. The balance of power continues to shift from company to union to company and who suffers the workers. We need decent trade agreements with our neighbors, Canada and Mexico. Yes we need the unions to be supportive of good pay for their workers but standards of living vary in our 3 countries. Yes, the companies seem to have the upper hand at present. Fighting totally against fair free trade is not the way to attack this issue.
The “immigration problem” was directly caused by NAFTA and a U.S. foregin policy dictated by corporate profit, and the ruling corporate elites of Mexico and Central America.
Why are MILLIONS of Mexicans (and others) so desperate to come to the U.S. despite the extremely dangerous conditions of crossing the border without documentation.
The majority of people in Mexico are living in poverty, although one of the wealthiest men in the world is a Mexican, Carlos Slim Helú, who secured his wealth when Mexico was forced, under NAFTA, to privatize the public telephone system.
U.S. agricbusiness dumped cheap (and even U.S. subsidized) corn into Mexico, that pushed 1 million local peasant farmers off the land, into the cities and then north to U.S.
Local elites, owners of the land and factories, become wealthy by paying workers as cheap as possible to U.S. companies trying to “make a killing” using cheap Mexican labor. The corruption and drug violence have compounded the multi-national corporate impoverishment of the Mexican people.
Any serious “immigration reform” must confront and challenge thse standard practises of multi-national corportions, U.S. foreign policy, and class war of the ruling elite of Mexico and U.S.
All immigration laws that further penalize and destroy undocumented Mexican working people and their familities must be opposed. All such approaches further depresses the standard of living for all working people in the U.S. and Mexico. (Thus no 6,000 fines as proposed by Kennedy! Full rights to long-time resident children and students trying to finish high school and college educations unable to pay “non-reisident” tuitions. Full access to health care and other public services enjoyed by citizens.)
The Universal Declaration of Human rights must be observed for all people living in the United States. This Deckaratuib should become a part of the goals of alll labor unions and their representative political parties and governements through the world. Stop the genocide against working people everywhere in the world! Stop the U.S. and global genocide of people deemd unprofitable by corporate capitalism.
Read about the Declaration of Human Rights here:
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
In Spanish here: :
http://daccess-ods.un.org/TMP/2215676.html
I’m just curious. If I cross the Mexican border illegally, do I have a right to a job there? Would I put signs up in English and expect every one else to learn English and give up their native Spanish language? If I race across the border with my pregnant wife, is my child a citizen of Mexico then with full access to health care, education and all other public services enjoyed by Mexican citizens? If I hide illegally in the country long enough, will I automatically become a citizen?
The UAW Chrysler plant in Fenton, Mo. is the perfect example of the “nightmare” NAFTA has created for the working people of America. Canada is running three shifts of the mini-van with overtime and Mexico is making the majority of the Ram pick up while the gates of the Fenton plant are locked and the lights are out. Nine thousand people are out of work.
This labor day we should rally in Washington with mock card board caskets as we morn for it. Jobs, what jobs?
My guess is if you were caught crossing into Mexico illegally they’d slap you into one of their infamous jails before you even knew what happened.
yeah, and what would happen if you went to Canada and got sick or injured? They wouldn’t ship you back to the US and say “tough luck, buddy” you’re an American. They’d give you free medical care and send you on your way. Or, what about all those Americans that drive to Canada to get their meds?
Boy, if I were Canadian, I’d say its time to build a wall and keep them damn illegal immigrants out!
oh, and btw, zebra, mexicans who come to this country don’t have a “right to a job” anymore than anyone else does. I also don’t know a single mexican immigrant that expects anyone to give up English and learn Spanish. Just because you’re scared of words you can’t read on signs, doesn’t mean the rest of us are.