A better NAFTA for workers: Union leaders make their case in Mexico

The labour movement is laying out its ideas for a new North American Free Trade Agreement that would benefit workers. A number of union leaders staged a rally today in Mexico City as officials from the three countries arrived for a fresh round of negotiations.

Canadian auto-workers leader Jerry Dias of Unifor, one of the country’s largest unions, was among them.

The crowd of hundreds chanted and cheered as Dias voiced his demands, speaking through a Spanish-language translator.

They include a transformation of Mexico’s unionization practices; higher wages in Mexico; an end to right-to-work laws in the U.S.; and an international mechanism to make sure countries respect labour promises.

Dias says everyone talks about ensuring the new NAFTA helps working people - now it’s time for governments to prove they mean it.

He says the NAFTA era has not produced higher salaries for Mexicans, and is instead dragging down the labour market across the continent.

“It’s our time to fix the wrongs of the past,” Dias said.

“The promise of NAFTA - that it would improve the standard of living for workers in all three countries - that was a lie ..... The Mexican workers that work in your auto plants can’t afford to buy the cars that you build. And that is an absolute disgrace.” He asked why, if workers in Canada and the United States make $35 an hour, a Mexican worker couldn’t make the equivalent 525 pesos an hour. People in the crowd laughed at the idea of what would be, in Mexico, an exponential pay raise.

Other speakers at the event shared stories about intimidation of labour and even the murder of some workers.

But some analysts say the picture painted by Dias is overly simplistic. While Mexican salaries haven’t grown, stats show the workers faring best are in tradedependent sectors.

The auto industry also rejects the idea that higher salaries in Mexico would lead to more or higher-paying jobs in Canada and the U.S.