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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | November 3, 2017 | PAGE 9 TRADE New NAFTA not likely, says top Mexican union leader END OF AN ERA: West Linn Paper Company announced Oct. 16 it is permanently closing its Willamette Falls paper mill, after 128 years of operation. The closure means the elimination of roughly 250 jobs — and the loss of another piece of Oregon’s wood products industry. Formerly known as the Crown-Zellerbach mill, the site once employed 1,600 people, and millworkers were represented by the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers. But the mill was sold to James River Corporation in 1986, and that company went out of business in 1996. When it reopened in 1997 as the West Linn Paper Company, the mill was nonunion. By Mark Gruenberg and John Wojcik PAI Staff Writer and Editor, People’s World ST. LOUIS (PAI)—A top Mexican union leader isn’t op- timistic that Mexico, the U.S., and Canada will succeed in ne- gotiating a “new NAFTA” to replace the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agree- ment. In an interview Oct. 24 dur- ing the AFL-CIO Convention in St. Louis, Mario Gonzalez Aguilera — an airline pilot and co-president of the Union Na- cional de Trabajadores (UNT) — said his union federation saw what Trump did cam- paigning for repeal of the Af- fordable Care Act, with no re- gard for the impact on millions of Americans. “We realize NAFTA could be shut down overnight,” he said. “We need to negotiate without being under threats of (construction of) a wall or that ‘If you don’t, there will be tar- iffs on autos.’” Aguilera said Mexican workers have calmed down af- ter initial anger at Trump’s statements calling Mexicans rapists and drug dealers: “Now we see he’s provoking people everywhere.” In the latest round of NAFTA talks, which ended the week before the convention, the U.S. delegation demanded higher domestic content rules for automobiles, while propos- ing labor rules that the AFL- CIO calls extremely weak. The labor proposal lacks an effec- tive enforcement mechanism and doesn’t address Mexico’s lower wages, a key draw for multinational corporations that have taken at least a million U.S. jobs south of the border. Canada, on the other hand, has proposed that a modified NAFTA have stronger labor rules, demanding not just Mex- ican adherence to international labor standards and increases in Mexican wages and worker freedom, but also stronger la- bor laws in the United States— including repeal of so-called right-to-work laws. But Mexican President En- rique Peña Nieto, siding with multinational corporations, has rejected both the U.S. and Canadian proposals. The UNT, one of several Mexican labor federations, submitted proposed changes to NAFTA’s labor chapter to Pres- ident Peña Nieto, concentrating on increasing Mexican wages and strengthening worker rights. Other Mexican labor feder- ations have been silent on the NAFTA talks, which will re- sume next year. Aguilera said Mexico’s unions are under pressure from the ruling Insti- tutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to stop questioning the government’s stands on NAFTA and other issues, since Mexicans will go to the polls next July 1 to elect a new pres- ident and Congress. UNT is almost finished with its presidential endorsement process, Aguilera said. The two leading hopefuls are An- dres Manuel Lopez Obrador, governor of the state that in- cludes Mexico City, and the city’s current mayor, Miguel Mancera. Obrador is consid- ered the progressive in the race, but is also trying to assure Mexican corporations that he will not be an extremist, Aguil- era said. Aguilera met with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka to discuss NAFTA, U.S. immi- gration laws and enforcement, and other issues. The two signed an agreement commit- ting the UNT and the AFL- CIO to defend human and worker rights regardless of im- migration status, and to fight “all forms of corporate control of workers,” including con- tracts that firms in Mexico sign with company-controlled unions before a firm even opens its doors. Labor rights for immigrants are not just an issue in the U.S., Aguilera said. Many of the tens of thousands who flee violence and repression in Central America end up staying in Mexico. “The idea that they all go to the U.S. is not correct, so in Mexico, we fight for the full rights of all immigrants, the same way we insist on immi- grant rights in the U.S.” Aguilera also thanked the AFL-CIO for pursuing the case of the disappearance of 43 Mexican teachers last year. The 43 are presumed to have been murdered, and the Mexican state governor was allegedly complicit in the crime. Their bodies have not been found.
