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.