Why the Trump Dol is investigating workers’ rights in Mexico while demolishing them at home

A minute before the White House was distributed by e-mail, a new decree of dismantling of collective negotiation for negotiations for American federal workers, the Ministry of Labor of President Donald Trump made another somewhat surprising announcement.

Dol in a press release on Thursday sent at 4:01 pm announced that it was investigating to find out if workers at a slaughter and meat distribution plant in Mexico “are refused the right to freedom of association and collective negotiations” under a work agreement on a commercial contract. At 4:02 p.m., another email from the administration came: the White House shared the executive order which has just signed six other agencies to the list of federal departments whose workers were forced to end their unions.

When Trump, in his first mandate, sent the American-mexico-canotade trade agreement, or USMCA, to Congress, the administration only obtained bipartite support after agreeing to include a work provision by the Democrats of the Chamber which allow violations of the work of DOL and to apply the collective negotiation rights established under the Mexican law. The members of the Congress presented the provision as resolving two problems at the same time: it helps to solve the humanitarian issue of workers’ rights and it is a means of equalizing trade between Mexico and the United States by reducing the competitive advantage of Mexico of cheap labor.

The second Trump administration continued to apply this provision – a fact that comes with a good dose of irony for anyone who followed Trump’s attacks on organized work in the United States during his second term.

Thursday’s executive decree targeted six agencies, including the National Weather Service and the American World Media Agency, ordering them to end the union representation for their employees. The administration had already moved to end collective negotiations for nearly 400,000 civil servants, or more than 2.6% of all unionized workers in the United States

“This last decree is another example clear of reprisals against the members of the union of federal employees who courageously resisted its anti-workman and anti-American plan to dismantle the federal government,” the president of AFGE, Everett Kelley said on Thursday.

It is not only the federal workforce. Nine months after his second presidency, Trump hammered national labor protections. The President hampered the National Council for Labor Relations, responsible for the application of labor law in the private sector, when he dismissed Gwynne Wilcox, a democratic member of the board of directors and the first black woman to play in this role. (A federal judge ruled on the dismissal of Wilcox, but the Supreme Court made a suspension pending a decision of the Court of Appeals of DC.) Trump returned an anti-discrimination order for entrepreneurs of the federal government and tried to empty civil rights by pose jets at the Dol. And his administration has proposed to exempt numerous health workers at home from minimum wage requirements and eliminate overtime for many resident domestic workers.

“I think the contradictory approach is a good way to say it,” said Josh Boxerman, director of government affairs for the National Employment Law Project. “There is a lot of boastful [Trump] On how much he cares about workers, but when you really look at the actions of his administration, it is exactly the opposite. »»

The White House referred TPM questions for this dol article, which did not answer the requests for TPM comments.

The lever of the Trump administration of “democratic power”

The United States can examine the allegations of denial of Mexico rights thanks to a provision of the USMCA work called the rapid response mechanism, or RRM. Basically, the provision allows individuals and organizations in Mexico to issue a complaint if they believe that an establishment violates the collective negotiation rights of workers. If the United States supports the complaint, a Dol division launches a specific installation survey, determines whether it has violated the relevant labor laws and gives Mexico time to respond before climbing and taking other measures. Since 2021, more than 30 RRM have been launched. The largest proportion has been invoked in the automotive manufacturing industry, including in the facilities operated by American companies like General Motors.

While the DOL has described its latest RRM invocation “part of the Trump administration efforts to guarantee that our business partners respect the rules”, the mechanism exists because of the Democrats, Kathleen Claussen, research professor of Georgetown and professor of law, underlined in an interview.

“The USMCA was an asset I realized, but this subject and the RRM itself only entered the conversation when the Democrats took the Chamber,” said Claussen. “You see this resurgence of democratic power that has pushed these things on the finish line.”

When the USMCA was negotiated in 2019, the Democrats of the Chamber on the Trade and Meaning Committee sent a letter to the commercial representative of the time, Robert Lighthizer, urging the administration to strengthen the requirements of work and the “mechanism for settlement of disputes from the trade agreement”.

The provision was adopted by a bipartite coalition at the time. And the Trump administration, for its part, continued to rely on the RRM as part of its broader trade policies.

“You can imagine that they would say:” What do you know? We don’t care about work. Let us note this thing and put our attention on the prices “”, said Claussen. “But they didn’t do it.”

Representative John B. Larson (D-CT) was one of the legislators who signed this letter and was involved in the USMCA negotiations.

“President Trump does not really care about workers,” he said in an email at TPM. “He has always attacked the work here at home, in particular by trying to end collective negotiation rights for federal employees across the government.”

In 2019, the UAW was encouraged to see the emphasis on work in the Trade Agreement, said Jason Wade, superior advisor to the President of the USMCA workers. But for him, Trump’s historic trade agreement is not far enough.

“We did not think of a whole that the USMCA was going to change the trade between the two countries, and disappointing we were right,” he told TPM.

The reduction of federal workforce by the Trump administration has complicated labor laws. While highlighting the application of labor rights in Mexico, the administration has put more stress in the already deficient dol sectors responsible for enforcing the trade agreement.

Trump “has essentially closed the Office of International Labor Affairs,” said Larson, “potentially allowing American jobs to be outsourced to countries that use operating practices like Forced and Child Labour to obtain an unfair advantage.”

The reduction of funds for international labor initiatives reflects the way Trump and his allies financed the NLRB, head of the national workers’ rights, said Wade.

“In the implementation, we have stronger labor laws [than Mexico]”Said Wade,” But disappointing, they are getting closer and closer every day, and not in the right direction. »»