The Mexican legislature adopted a set of major labor reforms on Monday, a long-awaited move crucial to the passage of President Trump’s U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade.
U.S. congressional Democrats had demanded that Mexico act before they would allow a House vote on the USMCA. It is unclear, though, whether Mexico’s reforms go far enough to satisfy the Democrats’ objections.
The White House hailed the legislature’s action. “These reforms will greatly improve Mexico’s system of labor justice and are exactly what labor leaders in the United States and Mexico have sought for decades,” said U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
Critics of Mexico’s labor system have long argued that it allows employers to corruptly influence union elections. Monday’s reforms require that workers have secret ballots in elections as well as when ratifying collective bargaining contracts, a change meant to ensure that the unions are independent of management’s influence.
Democrats from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on down, however, have avoided saying whether the Mexican reform package is sufficient. Last week, Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, the U.S.’ largest labor federation, said he welcomed the reform proposal but added that Mexico still to do more to address the concerns regarding its system.
“The reforms … I think, meet the standard that was put in the annex [to USMCA],” Trumka told the Washington Examiner. “But that is only part one. Even if you have those laws, that doesn’t mean that you have the ability or will to enforce them. What we want to see is that they have the [legal] infrastructure [in Mexico] to support the bill and the resources to do it.”
Lighthizer said Monday the Trump administration would work to ensure that the reforms weren’t merely symbolic. “As we move forward with the ratification of USMCA, the Trump administration will work closely with members of the United States Congress and the Mexican government to ensure these reforms are implemented and enforced,” he said.
[Related: Trump USMCA would add $68B to GDP and 176,000 jobs, independent report says]
