ACTIVIST TOOLKIT
Joint Action: We Need Strong Workers Rights Enforcement
Donald Trump is celebrating the implementation of the new NAFTA while Mexican labor activists and workers are being jailed and murdered trying to organize independents unions… a right guaranteed under the deal.
Our Rethink Trade coalition is launching a petition to demand the Trump administration work with the Mexican government to ensure that the labor rights guaranteed in the new NAFTA translate into improvements in North American workers’ lives. Unless the new NAFTA is enforced, its labor protections are nothing more than words on paper. Until Mexican workers can fight for better wages and safer working conditions with real independent unions, NAFTA’s devastating race-to-the-bottom American outsourcing and Mexican sweatshop wages will crush workers on both sides of the border.
To get involved in this joint action, please email the Rethink Trade coalition committee at campaigns@rethinktrade.org.
Activist Toolkit and Resources
For Facebook:
Until Mexican workers can fight for better wages and safer working conditions with real independent unions, job outsourcing and sweatshop wages will crush workers on both sides of the border.
Add your name: [LINK]
[GRAPHIC: LRE-Trump-Lies_NAFTA Labor – FBIG1.jpg]
What do we want?
✅ Improved labor standards for Mexican workers
✅ An end to American job outsourcing
✅ Trade justice for all working people
When do we want it?
✊🏽✊🏻✊🏿 NOW!
Add your name: [LINK]
[GRAPHIC: LRE-Trump-Lies_NAFTA Labor – FBIG2.jpg]
The illegal attacks against labor activists like Susana Prieto Terrazas make clear that we must pressure the U.S. and Mexican governments to enforce the new NAFTA’s labor protections and Mexico’s labor reform.
TAKE ACTION NOW: [LINK]
[GRAPHIC: LRE-Trump-Lies_NAFTA Labor – FBIG3.jpg]
Under the Trump administration, 170,000 Americans lost their jobs due to outsourcing, and the trade deficit with Canada and Mexico jumped 88%. Workers will continue suffering from #TrumpsBrokenPromises if we don’t act now.
Take action today: [LINK]
[GRAPHIC: LRE-Trump-Lies_NAFTA Labor – FBIG4.jpg]
For Twitter:
Until Mexican workers can fight for better wages and safer working conditions, job outsourcing and sweatshop wages will crush workers on both sides of the border. Add your name: [LINK]
[GRAPHIC: LRE-Trump-Lies_NAFTA Labor – TW1.jpg]
The illegal attacks against Susana Prieto Terrazas make clear that we must pressure the U.S. and Mexican governments to enforce the new NAFTA’s labor protections and Mexico’s labor reform.
ADD YOUR NAME: [LINK]
[GRAPHIC: LRE-Trump-Lies_NAFTA Labor – TW2.jpg]
Unless we force them to enforce labor protections in the new NAFTA, its labor protections are nothing more than words on paper. TAKE ACTION NOW: [LINK]
[GRAPHIC: LRE-Trump-Lies_NAFTA Labor – TW3.jpg]
170,000 workers lost their jobs due to #TrumpsBrokenPromises on job outsourcing. Working people will lose if we fail to hold Trump accountable! Take action now: [LINK]
[GRAPHIC: LRE-Trump-Lies_NAFTA Labor – TW4.jpg]
Sample Email One:
Subject: Another Broken Promise to Workers
Body:
Donald Trump is pretending he fixed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA.)
One of his core pledges as a candidate was to end the outsourcing of jobs and protect workers. And to end our trade deficit.
In reality, the U.S. government has certified at least 170,000 trade-related American job losses between 2017 and 2020. The overall U.S. trade deficit with the NAFTA countries jumped 88%.
Sign the petition, and call out Trump’s lie!
On the very day that Trump was celebrating the new NAFTA’s start and proclaiming its wonders, a new arrest warrant was issued for labor lawyer Susana Prieto Terrazas. She languished for a month in a dangerous Mexican prison and now is exiled.
Her crime? Representing workers who were exercising the new NAFTA’s core protection: the right to form independent unions in Mexico.
The story of the U.S. firm whose Mexican maquiladora factory Prieto was helping to organize is a perfect picture of NAFTA’s poison for workers throughout North America.
In 2016, the U.S. firm outsourced production to Mexico, laying off 1,300 Philadelphians. The Mexican workers now making the firm’s auto parts are paid less per day than U.S. workers make per hour. And they were pushed back to work amidst a raging COVID-19 outbreak. Workers died. No doubt these workers voted to rid themselves of their highly corrupt company union.
Arresting these workers’ lawyer on trumped-up charges, getting her exiled to another state so she cannot help workers get a real union, and now threatening to arrest her again does not just sabotage workers’ right to form a union.
The maquiladora bosses and the conservative Mexican governors colluding with them are sending a message to workers and their advocates: There will be no change.
These actions violate Mexico’s Constitution, its 2019 Labor Law and the new NAFTA’s labor protections. So, what is being done to reserve this outrage?
Nothing, so far. That is where you come in. Donald Trump wants to say he fixed NAFTA. We need to call out that lie.
Sign the petition, and call out Trump’s lie!
Unless the new NAFTA is enforced, its labor protections are nothing more than words on paper. Until Mexican workers can fight for better wages and safer working conditions with real independent unions, NAFTA’s devastating race-to-the-bottom American outsourcing and Mexican sweatshop wages will crush workers on both sides of the border.
In solidarity,
[Name]
Sample Email Two:
Subject: If Mexican workers lose, we all lose.
Body:
The right for workers to establish and join independent unions is a right guaranteed under the new North American Free Trade Agreement.
But as Donald Trump celebrates the official start of the deal, Mexican labor activists are being jailed and murdered.
That’s why we’re launching a petition demanding the Trump administration work with the Mexican government to ensure that the labor rights guaranteed in the new NAFTA translate into improvements in North American workers’ lives.
SIGN THE PETITION
As working people across the United States know all too well, corporate trade deals like NAFTA served a deathblow to good-paying jobs. The U.S. Department of Labor has certified more than one million U.S. jobs as lost to NAFTA.
As working people across Mexico know, these deals meant millions of farmers losing their land and millions of workers being subjected to sweatshop jobs. After decades of violence targeting union advocates, Mexican manufacturing wages are now 40% lower than those in China.
Until Mexican workers can fight for better wages and safer working conditions with real independent unions, NAFTA’s devastating race-to-the-bottom will continue to crush wages and attack workers across the continent.
Please add your name today and help us fight for a North America where working people come before corporate profits.
In solidarity,
[NAME]
NAFTA Timeline: What’s with the New NAFTA? (Replace NAFTA Coalition)
1994 NAFTA vs. Trump 2018 NAFTA 2.0 vs. 2019 New NAFTA (Public Citizen)
Our Fight to Replace NAFTA (Public Citizen)
AFL-CIO Statements and Releases on USMCA (AFL-CIO)