Unions Charge North Carolina Violating NAFTA Labor Rules

26 October, 2006

Mexico City

More than 50 labor organizations in Mexico, the United States and Canada, together representing several million workers, charged North Carolina and the United States with labor rules established under North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). (Participating organizations listed below.)

• Read the NAALC complaint [pdf format] ftp://www.ranknfile-ue.org/naalc_complaint.pdf

The complaint charges that 650,000 public employees in North Carolina are illegally denied the right to collective bargaining, a violation of labor protections guaranteed by the North American Agreement for Labor Cooperation (NAALC), the labor side agreement to NAFTA. It was formally filed on October 17 in Mexico by the Frente Autentico del Trabajo (FAT – the Authentic Labor Front.)

Frustration with the lack of collective bargaining and effective voice on the job has led to increasing protests by North Carolina public employees. The most dramatic recent instance was a strike by Raleigh sanitation workers on September 13 and 14.

The complaint was filed at the request of UE Local 150, the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union. UE 150 represents public sector workers across the state, including municipal employees in Raleigh, Charlotte, Chapel Hill, Durham and Rocky Mount, and state employees at numerous facilities of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the University of North Carolina (UNC) system and the Department of Administration.

UE Local 150 President Angaza Laughinghouse expressed the local’s gratitude for the showing of international support. “We are very pleased at this showing of solidarity with North Carolina public employees by unions from across the three NAFTA countries. This shows that North Carolina’s continued denial of basic worker rights is an international disgrace, and it must be corrected.”

The NAALC requires the United States, Mexico and Canada to provide for “high labor standards” in their laws, and lists freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining among its core principles. These rights are also required by the conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO), the labor arm of the United Nations (UN.) But North Carolina’s General Statute 95-98 prohibits collective bargaining by state and local government employees, a clear and direct violation of international law. The NAALC and other international agreements also require standards of due process for workers, protection of health and safety on the job, and protection against employment discrimination. The labor groups charge that North Carolina, in denying its workers the right to negotiate contracts, denies them these protections as well.

Mexico and Canada are North Carolina’s largest international trading partners. North Carolina’s combined annual exports to Canada and Mexico total $6.5 billion.

The FAT filed the charge in Mexico City with the National Administrative Office (NAO) within Mexico’s federal ministry of labor. Under NAFTA’s terms, the U.S., Canada and Mexico each established an NAO to act on complaints of violations of the NAALC. The petitioners are asking the Mexican NAO to investigate North Carolina’s labor rights violations, and issue a report and recommendations for action. The actions requested by the labor organizations include North Carolina immediately ceasing to enforce, and moving to repeal General Statute 95-98, replacing it with legislation that will guarantee public sector workers the rights to organize, bargain collectively, and full freedom of association.

Benedicto Martinez Orozco, national coordinator of the FAT, described his organization’s reasons for acting. “I traveled to NC and was shocked at the level of discrimination and that a country that places such importance on democracy does not permit public sector workers in North Carolina to bargain collectively. We are filing this complaint to support workers in the US.

UE entered into a “Strategic Organizing Alliance” with the FAT in 1992. The two organizations exchange information and assist each other in organizing campaigns and in struggles to protect and expand workers’ rights in both countries. They organize visits by rank-and-file workers to each others’ countries to increase understanding and solidarity between Mexican and U.S. workers.

United Steelworkers President Leo W. Gerard said, “The Steelworkers are proud to join with the UE and democratic and independent unions in Mexico to challenge violations of what few international standards exist for preventing unions in the United States from exercising the most basic rights to organize and bargain collectively.”

UE filed the first complaint under NAALC in 1994, after the Mexican government allowed General Electric to commit massive labor law violations in crushing a FAT organizing campaign at a GE plant in Juarez.

The filing of the current complaint was simultaneously announced to the media on Tuesday, October 17 in Mexico, Canada and the United States. The following organizations participated in the complaint:

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