Top NAFTA Foe, Ways and Means Member Seek Signers for Letter on Mexican Labor Reform

Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., who was ranking member on the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., a prominent NAFTA foe, are soliciting signatures for a letter they plan to send later this month on the importance of including Mexican labor reforms in a new NAFTA, now called the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement.

"As you know, USTR negotiated an annex in the updated NAFTA (USMCA) that requires Mexico to pass legislation to implement reforms to its labor system and do away with 'protection contracts.' The annex set a January 1 deadline that has since passed. Currently, draft legislation is being prepared in the Mexican Congress that would meet the requirements of the labor annex and meaningfully provide labor rights in Mexico for the first time. However, the draft legislation falls short in a few critical areas, particularly in guaranteeing a free, secret, and personal vote on the final collective bargaining agreement workers will be subject to," the two wrote in their explanation of why they're raising the issue.

The draft letter they plan to send to the U.S. trade representative says the Mexican bill, which has been introduced in the Senate, does not give workers the right to read a new contract before they vote on it and does not guarantee that challenges by workers who say their union does not represent them will not be subject to procedural delays. "While the draft meets and even exceeds the obligations of Annex 23-A in some respects, the Annex must not be allowed to become a game of multiple choice," the letter says.