Unions, Advocates Seek Changes to Rapid Response in USMCA Review
A new report from Rethink Trade, an anti-corporate trade nonprofit, says that while the USMCA's Rapid Response mechanism has helped tens of thousands of workers in Mexico, unions and Rethink Trade will push for changes to the mechanism in the USMCA review.
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The RRM was designed by former Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and was critical to getting trade-skeptical Democrats on board with the NAFTA rewrite.
Rethink Trade Director Lori Wallach said they would like some tweaks, including:
- shorten Mexico's time to respond to alleged violations from 45 days to 30 days
- give the American interagency labor committee more than 60 days to decide on whether to call for a panel after Mexican remediation proposals
- require parties to consult with petitioners when drawing up remediation plans
- complaints that are "resolved during review," rather than going to a course of remediation, count as a first strike. After repeated problems, the U.S. can suspend USMCA benefits for a facility where denials of labor rights are ongoing, or even ban the import of those products.
Rethink Trade also said it would push for "systemic improvements" such as:
- adding an obligation that employers bargain in good faith with unions and vice versa
- requiring Mexico's Federal Center for Labor Conciliation and Registration to have sanctioning authority
- separate fact-finding from penalty, and allow investigations in the U.S. and Canada, too.
The group hosted a webinar last week on their report and recommendations, and invited several labor unions to talk, too. Jason Wade, a senior adviser to the president of the United Autoworkers, said that the RRM "is a political process that masquerades as a legal process," and said that the U.S. doesn't want to push Mexico too hard. His union would like there to be a private right of action for complaints. There were 56 RRM complaints filed with the U.S., and the government chose not to pursue 19 of them.
Wade said the process needs to cover more than freedom of association and freedom to bargain, and there is an urgent need for Mexico and Canada to be able to bring complaints in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, because workers in those states cannot file unfair labor practices complaints under the U.S.'s domestic labor rights laws. That's because an appellate court that has jurisdiction over those three states ruled that the National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional.