Melinda St. Louis: Chuy Garcia, as a US congressional representative from Illinois, you championed labor rights during the USMCA negotiations.  What was the result?

Now that the USMCA is in effect, I want it enforced. I organized 100 Congresspeople to petition AMLO to get the state government leaders who had jailed Susana to comply with the worker protections in the USMCA and drop the charges against her. I believe that the rules in the USMCA should be the floor, not the ceiling, for any new trade agreements.

MS-L: Eric Gottwald, you’re the AFL-CIO specialist on trade and economic globalization. Can you explain the Rapid Response Mechanism — the RRM — in the USMCA?

Eric Gottwald: The AFL-CIO knew that NAFTA and other similar trade agreements left workers unprotected because the labor rules were not enforceable against companies, just against countries. For example, we filed a complaint about violations in Honduras ten years ago. The companies in question have yet to be punished. The RRM represents a big leap forward. Anyone can file a complaint against an Individual company, and the company can be called on the carpet and held accountable in a timely way.       

MS-L: Daniel Rangel, you wrote the first complaint using the RRM, against Tridonex, when you were research director here at Global Trade Watch. You’re now at the American Liberties Project’s Rethink Trade program. What are your takeaways?

Daniel Rangel: Success in an RRM complaint depends on three things: US agencies willing to enforce the labor provisions — and the Biden appointees stepped up; a Mexican government that supports workers — and Secretary of Labor Luisa Maria Alcalde did so; and, most importantly, independent worker-organizers and supporters willing to file complaints. Some corporations and some conservative states will keep trying to skirt their obligations, so more complaints will be needed. Binational coalitions are critical to keep the pressure on.

MS-L: Susana Prieto Terrazas, your courage and tenacity are incredible. You were imprisoned for your advocacy for independent unionism, and now you are now an elected congressional representative! What advances have been made?

Thousands of workers in Matamoros disgusted with the CTM union went on a wildcat strike in 2019 to demand payment of wages they were entitled to under federal wage laws. They won, but then many activists organizing a new independent union, SNITIS, were harassed and fired. Thanks to the RRM challenge charging that the right to free association had been violated at Tridonex, workers there finally got a fair, secret-ballot union representation election. But some of our supporters were beaten by CTM thugs. Many were fired and blacklisted. In spite of this, on March 1, our independent union SNITIS won 85 percent of the vote.

MS-L: Jeffery Hermanson, the Solidarity Center has worked closely with the independent auto workers union SINTTIA at GM Silao. They’ve been negotiating their first contract, right?

Jeffery Hermanson: In the case of GM Silao, the US trade representative filed an RRM complaint without an official complaint from the workers or anyone else, after finding obvious fraud in the first contract certification vote now required by Mexican labor law. The workers rejected that CTM contract, went on to vote in SINTTIA as their union representative, and on May 10 reached agreement on a tentative contract. It includes an 8.5 percent wage hike, seniority bonuses, vacation schedules not assigned by management, bathroom breaks when needed — and more. This is a big win.

MS-L: Ben Davis, US Steelworkers international affairs director, you’ve had ties with Mexican labor for a very long time. What’s coming?

Ben Davis: I’m afraid that Mexican worker demands for justice exceed the supply! If the three cases so far are an indication, when workers finally get a free vote, they vote by a massive percentage for an independent union. But there are 80,000 collective bargaining agreements that are supposed to be ratified, and only 4,000 have been done. Elections will continue to be marred by beatings, bribes, blacklisting, and not enough independent poll watchers. In many places, workers will not get a fair vote.

The companies want to delay, hoping that someone more anti-union will replace AMLO in México and Biden in the US. Political and economic support from US labor is coming, but it is not nearly enough. Rising real wages will be the measure of success, since wages in México have gone down both in terms of worker buying power and in relationship to US workers for three decades.

MS-L: Any concluding thoughts?

Ben Davis: The RRM is not a panacea. It’s a tool that can take some of the pressure off the employer’s thumb weighing on the scale of justice.

Jeffery Hermanson: These victories are a hopeful sign that US and Mexican labor can raise the bottom, rather than race to the bottom.