As the revised North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) continues to have a lot of uncertainty surrounding the talks, even if Canada is included, we should not lose the central problem to address any new agreement: American Outsourcing of industrial jobs for the arrangement of Mexico's pressing wages.

  Some people have tried to dismiss or downgrade this issue to focus on less central concerns related to trade with Mexico. Any new agreement which fails to address the issue of labor rights directly and firmly, will lock-in the situation for many years to come.

 For proof, you do not need furthermore than the emerging center of industrial production in San Luis Potosí, in San Miguel. Eight hundred workers make tires at a state-of-the-art Goodyear plant.

  But here's where the promise of prosperity revolves around most Mexican people. These workers have a compliance association and a so-called "security agreement". They earn $ 1.50 per hour for 9 hour shifts with animate benefits, rarely a way to middle class.

 On April 24, they left the job because of dangerous situations and promised lifting, in which only 50 cents were injured in the day. That's right, 50 cents a day! Fifty-seven leaders were immediately fired. One of us (Rip Levin) pulled out in San Luis Potosi last month and met the leaders and listened to their troubled complaints.

 At the bottom of the road, 1,500 workers in the Continental Tire plant have a very rare independent democratic union. They earn about 6 times the Guadiari wage - $ 6 for one hour-8 hours shift, with a more generous advantage.

 Mexican workers today can not make an independent choice between these two options. They are being removed and blacklisted or very bad. The vast majority of thousands of labor agreements in Mexico are "Security Agreements", which are signed by the government controlled by the ruling party and the workers who have never seen, signed or voted. The result is not only low wage, but also an industrial industrial policy of pressing wage.

 Let the flip side of the pressing wage do not have less purchasing power, which not only damages the workers and their families, but also reduces economic development. In addition, in a highly integrated economy, wage laboring in San Luis Potosi put pressure on wages in Ekron, Indianapolis and Long Beach, and provided a magnetic attraction for new investments.

 The NAFTA was to change all this in 1994, but instead the problem was supercharged. Since then the business has increased, but promise on the agreement to ink dry labor before the dry promises promised before the promise. Instead, the NAFTA for the next quarter century was closed in an inactive workshop system, with a $ 80 billion trade deficit with Mexico in the auto sector.

 Mexican workers have produced more and have earned less under NAFTA. Between 1994 and 2011, manufacturing productivity increased by 60 percent - an impressive achievement - while actual wages fell 20 percent and slide continued. It was not necessary for China to compete in this important area, rather to the US. It was necessary to entice the industry to Mexico.

 Mexicans have chosen a reform-mood of the government, which promises to restore the rights of Mexican workers, in July this year. And Canada helps protect workers' conditions. The new president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, does not take office until 1 December, but a new Mexican Senate, which dominates the party, is already sitting. On September 20, the new Mexican Senate unanimously endorsed the ILO Convention 98 on "The Rights of Organizations and Collective Bargaining", which is honored by the International Trade Union Congress (ITUC) as "a great victory for Mexican workers".

 Although this step is a positive sign, there is a lot to be done. Mexico passed a constitutional amendment last year, which outlined important new rights for workers, but the important implementation law was backward in the previous Senate. The new law has not yet been drafted in the new Senate and what will happen after it is unknown. Unspecified clear benchmark and effective enforcement, large elements of the situation can be closed once again for decades, especially considering the discussion about the opposition of real change with the underlying interests.

 It is therefore mandatory that any new NAFTA agreement has clearly provided for the immediate termination of thousands of security contracts in Mexico, starting from the clear auto sector, to ensure that all workers can make a real representation in the deal table and provide A transparent, enforceable process to fulfill these important objectives.

 The new agreement will have the basis for a growing continental middle class with independent unions for vibrant democratic societies across North America. History has shown that an important way to protect American workers is to protect against Mexican workers and from the other side. We need a North American road for the middle class, not the extended exit ramp.

 Levin is a senior member of the House Wedge and Means Committee. Harley Shiken is professor of expertise in labor and global economy at the University of California Berkeley. They recently returned from Mexico.
(source)