NAFTA and Industrial Relations in Mexico: What’s Important Now?

Abstract

Labor market issues were well-known stumbling blocks in negotiations leading to the North American Free Trade Agreement. At the center of the controversy were the low wage levels in Mexico and the institutional forces maintaining them, especially in the industrial relations and worker rights areas. Eight years after the January 1994 implementation of NAFTA, there is remarkable continuity in wages and industrial relations, despite increased intraregional trade and worker rights cases brought under the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation, the NAFTA side agreement that affirms employee rights and a commitment to labor principles.It’s time to move beyond the NAALC’s assumption that the labor laws of the United States, Mexico, and Canada are sufficient to provide acceptable levels of worker rights and labor standards. The focus should now be on what needs to change in a commonsense way to bring labor standards, particularly in Mexico, in line with the principles of the agreement.