Enact Fair Trade Policies

Bad trade agreements that do not have worker protections and rely on moving manufacturing and production to low-wage areas of the world are resulting in a vicious spiral to the bottom, without a safety net for those displaced from their livelihoods nor job training programs to provide skills for new jobs.

a. Mexican Workers at General Motors Have Organized a Union to Fight for a Living Wage

Mexican workers at the General Motors plant in Silao, Guanajuato, are paid between $9 and $23 a day for 12 hour shifts. As a result, they have organized a union in an effort to fight for a living wage. (Read More)

b. Mexican workers at Tridonex plant vote for independent union

Mexican workers at the Tridonex plant have voted for an independent union. (Read More)

c. Campaign to Guarantee Protections for the Right to Organize a Union

Read about Susana Prieto Terrazas, a labor attorney and activist who was released from jail. (Read more)

d. Free Trade Disproportionately Harms Black and Brown Workers

Since the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, many people of color, particularly black and brown workers, have been displaced from their jobs. (Read More)

e. Promote Cross Border Solidarity with Maquiladora Workers

Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso Texas, is the location of many huge maquiladoras. A growing movement of maquiladoras workers is protesting their working conditions. (Read more)

f. Building of a culture of solidarity

Since the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, corporations in the U.S. and Mexico have been driving down wages to reduce labor costs. As a result, workers in both countries have been supporting each other in solidarity. (Read More)

Action Steps

  1. Sign this petition to get General Motors to pay their workers in Mexico a living wage.
  2. Sign this petition to stop the attacks against Mexican workers and to drop the charges against labor attorney/activist Susana Prieto Terrazas.
  3. Support Maquiladora Workers in Ciudad Juarez

Additional Materials
  1. Share video of David Bacon on the links between U.S. Trade and Immigration Policies
  2. Conditions of Maquiladora Workers Read about Maquiladora workers