The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM Union), which represents more than 600,000 active and retired members across North America, has called on the U.S. Trade Representative to improve labor enforcement, raise wage standards, and address loopholes in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that it says allow for offshoring of jobs in aerospace, manufacturing, and other sectors.
In comments submitted as part of the USMCA’s mandatory six-year joint review, the IAM Union argued that weak labor enforcement in Mexico and insufficient rules of origin continue to put union jobs at risk in both the United States and Canada. The union opposed both the original NAFTA agreement in the early 1990s and the USMCA when it was adopted in 2019.
“The USMCA promised to lift standards for workers across North America, but too many companies are still chasing low wages and weak enforcement,” said IAM Union International President Brian Bryant. “It’s time for a trade policy that defends North American manufacturing, protects our workers, and ensures that every product bearing the USMCA label is truly made under fair conditions.”
The union’s submission calls for several changes: expanding and strengthening the Rapid Response Mechanism to better protect labor rights in Mexico; extending Labor Value Content rules to cover additional industries such as aerospace and shipbuilding; and tightening rules of origin so that goods from outside the region do not enter duty-free supply chains.
In its filing, the IAM Union stated: “Unfortunately, our concerns about USMCA have proven to be accurate: Mexican industrial wages remain lower than those in China, and offshoring of well-paid U.S. jobs continues, including many in the aerospace sector. Indeed, since USMCA was enacted, we have seen further erosion of good, middle-class, union jobs in the United States. In order to prevent this from continuing, we need to take vigorous action on a number of fronts during the upcoming review.”
The IAM Union is one of North America’s largest industrial trade unions with members working in aerospace, defense, airlines, shipbuilding, railroad, transit, healthcare, automotive and other industries throughout the United States and Canada.
