National struggles in a transnational economy: A critical analysis of US labor's campaign against NAFTA

Labor Studies Journal

Volumn 21, Issue 4, 1997, Pages 3-32

  Cowie, Jefferson ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0348062865     PISSN: 0160449X     EISSN: 15389758     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0160449X9702100401     Document Type: Review

References (57)

1. For a brief outline of NAFTA's deficiencies see Darryl Hotter, "What NAFTA Needs: Labor Standards and Worker Rights," Latin American Labor News 6&7(1992-1993).
2. Peter Donahue, "'Free Trade' Unions and the State: Trade Liberalization's Endorsement by the AFL-CIO, 1943-1962," Research in Political Economy 13(1992): 54-64;
3. for a useful discussion a labor-capital settlement in the postwar era see Bruce Nissen, "A Post-World War II 'Social Accord?'" in Bruce Nissen, ed., US Labor Relations, 1945-1989: Accommodation and Conflict (New York: Garland, 1990), 173-207.
4. Paul G. Buchanan, "The Impact of US Labor," in Abraham F. Lowenthal, ed., Exporting Democracy: The United States and Latin America, Themes and Issues (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1991), 158.
5. NACLA, Latin America Report, "Hit and Run: US Runaway Shops on the Mexican Border" 9 (July-August 1975): 27.
6. Congress, Senate, Senator Hartke, 92d Cong. 1st sess., Congressional Record (28 September 1971), vol. 117, pt. 25, 5136.
7. Irwin Ross, "Labor's Big Push for Protectionism," Fortune 87(March 1973): 94.
8. Buchanan, "The Impact of US Labor," 183.
9. David Montgomery, Workers' Control in America (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 170-171; this metaphor is used to describe labor's political ideologies rather than its relationship to foreign trade but is applicable here.
10. Steven Hecker, "US Unions, Trade and International Solidarity: Emerging Issues and Tactics" Economic and Industrial Democracy 14(1993): 357.
11. Stephen Fielding Diamond, "US Labor and North American Economic Integration," in Ricardo Grinspun and Maxwell A. Cameron, eds., The Political Economy of North American Free Trade (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993), 253.
12. Roger Southall, "At Issue," in Southall, ed., Trade Unions and the New Industrialization of the Third World (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1988), 19.
13. New York Times, 17 February 1993.
14. George Bush, North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada; Communication from the President of the United States Transmitting Notification of his intent to enter into a North American Free Trade Agreement with the governments of Mexico and Canada, pursuant to section 1103(a)(1) of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 (Washington: GPO, 1992).
15. "Prepared Statement of Senator Dorgan," NAFTA Job Claims: Truth in Statistics, p.6;
16. See also, James M. Cypher, "The Ideology of Economic Science in the Selling of NAFTA: The Political Economy of Elite Decision Making," paper presented to the International Conference on the North American Free Trade Agreement, Centro de Estudios Economia Teoria y Practica, Mexico, D.F., 17-19 March 1993;
17. and William E. Spriggs and James Stanford, "Economists' Assessments of the Likely Employment and Wage Effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement," Hofstra Labor Law Journal 10(Spring 1993): 495-536.
18. See AFL-CIO Task Force on Trade, "North American Free Trade Negotiations, The Jobs Debate: Fiction & Reality" (#21) (Washington: AFL-CIO, 1992),
19. "North American Free Trade Agreement, The Jobs Debate: Part II" (#22) (Washington: AFL-CIO, 1993).
20. Timothy Koechlin, Mehrene Larudee, Samuel Bowles, and Gerald Epstein, "Effect of the North American Free Trade Agreement on Investment, Employment and Wages in Mexico and the U.S." (Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1992);
21. see also Pat Choate, "Jobs at Risk: Vulnerable US Industries and Jobs Under NAFTA" (Amherst: The Manufacturing Policy Project, April 1993).
22. AFL-CIO News, 9 September 1992.
23. Wayne Cornelius, "NAFTA Costs Mexico More Job Losses Than the U.S." New York Times, 17 October 1995.
24. "Corporations Profit From Labor-Rights Suppression in Mexico," IBEW Journal (May 1993): 38-39.
25. See, for instance, David Barkin's critique of US labor intellectuals perspectives on Mexican labor in his "A Constructive Strategy for Free Trade," Review of Radical Political Economics 25(1993): 135.
26. "Mexico Continues to Abuse Workers' Rights," UAW Washington Report 33(July 1993): 1;
27. Pablo Pascual Moncayo and Raúl Trejo Delarbre, Los Sindicatos Mexicanos Ante el TLC (Mexico: Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educacion/Instituto Para Transicion Democratica, 1993), 74-75.
28. M. Patricia Fernández-Kelly, "Labor Force Recomposition and Industrial Restructuring in Electronics: Implications for Free Trade," Hofstra Labor Law Journal 10(Spring 1993): 620.
29. Kevin J. Middlebrook, "State-Labor Relations in Mexico: The Changing Economic and Political Context" in Middlebrook, ed., Unions, Workers, and the State in Mexico (San Diego: Center for US-Mexican Studies, 1991), 3-15;
30. and Middlebrook, The Paradox of Revolution: Labor, The State, and Authoritarianism in Mexico (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1995).
31. Maria Lorena Cook, "Mexican State-Labor Relations and the Political Implications of Free Trade," Latin American Perspectives 22(Winter 1995): 86.
32. Jim Stanford, in Canada Under Free Trade (Toronto: J. Lorimer, 1993), 153;
33. see also Bruce Campbell, "Restructuring the Economy: Canada into the Free Trade Era," in The Political Economy of North American Free Trade, Ricardo Grinspun and Maxwell A. Cameron, eds. (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993), 98-99.
34. For a critical but supportive reflection on coalitions and NAFTA, see Rand Wilson, Massachusetts Director of Jobs with Justice, "Winning Lessons from the NAFTA Loss," Labor Research Review 22(1994): 29-37;
35. see also the variety of experiences in Jeremy Brecher and Tim Costello, eds., Building Bridges: the Emerging Grassroots Coalition of Labor and Community (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1993).
36. "Mexican Labor Leader Joins Teamster Caravan," The New Teamster (December 1992): 6.
37. Kim Moody and Mary McGinn, Unions and Free Trade (Detroit: Labor Notes, 1992);
38. Tom Laney, "Step-by-Step" mimeo describing MEXUSCAN efforts in Labor Note's "Free Trade Organizer's Packet" (Detroit: Labor Notes, n.d.);
39. for a sober analysis of these efforts see Barry Carr, "Labor Internationalism in the Era of NAFTA: Past and Present," Latin American Studies Occasional Papers #14 (Miami: Center for Labor Research and Studies, Florida International University, 1995).
40. Harry Brown and Beth Sims, "Global Capitalism, Global Unionism," The Resource Center Bulletin (Winter 1993).
41. Interview with shop steward Luvernel Clark from Knoxville in David Brooks, "Search for Counterparts: A Labor-Community Agenda Must Cross Borders as Well," Labor Research Review 19(1992): 91-93.
42. Comments of Barb Kucera of the St. Paul, MN Union Advocate quoted in the Minneapolis-based Resource Center of the Americas' Labor Report on the Americas 4(January-February 1994): 2.
43. Brooks, "Search for Counterparts," 83.
44. Emphasis added. Harvey Levenstein, Labor Organizations in the United States and Mexico: A History of Their Relations (Westport: Greenwood, 1971), 5;
45. Barry Carr, "Labor Internationalism."
46. Bill Clinton, "Expanding Trade and Creating American Jobs," mimeo of speech given at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, 4 October 1992, Little Rock: National Campaign Headquarters, 14.
47. and Pharis Harvey, "Protecting Labor Rights in Connection with North American Free Trade" mimeo based on legislative testimony before the House of Representatives (Washington: ILRERF, March 1993);
48. see also Richard Rothstein, "Setting the Standard: International Labor Rights and US Trade Policy," Briefing Paper of the Economic Policy Institute (Washington: EPI, March 1993).
49. Jefferson Cowie and John D. French, "NAFTA's Labor Side Accord: A Textual Analysis," a special pullout section of Latin American News 9(1994).
50. Statement of Thomas R. Donahue before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on the North American Free Trade Agreement, 6 May 1993, AFL-CIO mimeo, 4-5.
51. See for instance, the critique of the European model in Manfred McDowell, "NAFTA and the EC 'Social Dimension,'" Labor Studies Journal 20(Spring 1995): 31-47;
52. Lance Compa, "... And the Twain Shall Meet? A North-South Controversy Over Labor Rights and Trade," Labor Research Review 23(1995): 51-65;
53. and Jon Pattee, "Sprint and the Shutdown of La Conexion Familiar," Labor Research Review 23(1995): 13-21.
54. See the similar efforts and conclusions in Wilson, "Winning Lessons," 35-37.
55. Diamond, "US Labor," 257.
56. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London: Verso, 1991).
57. For a discussion of these options see Stephen Herzenberg, "Switching Tracks: Using NAFTA's Labor Agreement to Move Toward the High Road," Border Briefing #2, Interhemispheric Resource Center/International Labor Rights Fund.