Mexico Trip Convinced Blumenauer That AMLO Is Serious on Labor, but Private-Sector Resistance Remains

House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who led a trip to Mexico with nine other House members last week, said that everyone came away impressed with Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Blumenauer said that in his opinion, the entire Mexican Cabinet is clearly committed to changing labor laws in Mexico so that its workers can be better paid. "Lots of money was made [from NAFTA], but workers in the United States, workers in Mexico, are no better off in inflation-adjusted terms," he said.

Blumenauer said that at one point, one of the group asked a Mexican government official how Congress can know that they're serious about making these changes. The response: "We've been fighting in the street for this for years." Still, some members on the trip were less positive about labor reform in Mexico after going (see 1907250009).

Blumenauer called the Labor ministry's plans to give workers the opportunity to vote in their own unions and end protection unions are "extraordinarily detailed." However, he noted that Goodyear did not allow the Congress members to tour its plant in San Luis Potosi, where 57 workers behind a wildcat strike were fired (see 1906250025). This particular labor conflict has been a priority for Democrats for years (see 1808280008). Usually, factories like to get congressional tours, as they're proud of what they're doing, he said, and he doesn't buy Goodyear's explanation that the factory was just too busy to accommodate them. "Allegedly they want the agreement ratified in some fashion," he said of Goodyear, so he said it was curious the company decided not to let them in. "I think it was a mistake on their part."

So, although Blumenauer is convinced that labor reform in Mexico is real, he said the international companies and the captive unions "are not going to go quietly into the night."

Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., a fellow working group member who went on the trip, said "we won't know if that [Mexico] budget reflects a real commitment to enforcement provisions until Sept 6," and the vote on the budget could happen as late as November. "If they show a real commitment through real resources, you're going to see people feel a little bit better about what's going on in Mexico," he said.

Overall, Blumenauer believes that what he calls NAFTA 2.0 is "decidedly better" than its predecessor, though with regard to biologics, it is worse than the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would have served as a NAFTA rewrite, since both Canada and Mexico are parties to it.

Blumenauer is a fervent environmentalist, and the trip included a visit to Tijuana, to see the environmental problems there that affect San Diego. He said the stream of water they saw that heads to the Pacific is 20 percent to 25 percent raw sewage. The U.S. should dedicate more money to recapitalizing the North American Development Bank, he said. Gomez said he worked on the pollution of the Tijuana River as it flows into the Pacific when he was in the California legislature. "I think that there's stuff that we can do outside the agreement, like reinvesting in the NAD Bank... . I think there's options where we can help clean up the environment."