Workers wages and manufacturing are draining through the NAFTA hole in the U.S.’s southern border; creating American auto companies that won’t be so American any more. Canadian and U.S. conservative politicians might object, but the public just might side with Sen. Barack Obama’s pledge to renegotiate NAFTA. The International Harold Tribune reveals:
Mexican auto unions are taking a cue from U.S. labor leaders by (doing just what they did) offering two-tier hiring schemes and salary cuts that bring already low wages down to near-Chinese levels. As more automakers turn to Mexico, a big argument for the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993 that Mexico's low wage rates would slowly rise to close the gap with U.S. wages seems to have been thrown in reverse.
"The pressure has not been to raise the Mexican wages up, it's been to push the U.S. wages down," said the director of the AFL-CIO Solidarity office in Mexico City. Union leaders there agreed to cut wages for new hires to about half of the current wage of $4.50 per hour.
The United Auto Workers union had hoped to preserve American jobs by offering a two-tier wage system last fall…but it hasn't worked, the jobs are flowing to Mexico, where starting wages at some plants also have been two-tiered, to as little as $1.50 per hour with a lot less of the related pension and health care costs of U.S. workers. Mexico's free trade deals help slash the cost of importing parts and exporting cars. Nothing in NAFTA stops this drive to the wage floor.
Warm and fuzzy moment
Two Presidents, Ford’s Alan Mullaly and Mexico’s Felipe Calderon in Mexico City.
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