U.S. and Mexico Labor Secretaries Meet to Discuss Guestworker Abuses

Today we celebrate an important victory in the fight for migrant workers' rights.

Thomas Perez, U.S. Secretary of Labor, and Alfonso Navarrete Prida, Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare for Mexico, will meet face-to-face for the first time. They will engage in ministerial consultations and sign a joint declaration pursuant to the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), the labor side accord to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The declaration responds to a petition filed by CDM in 2011 on behalf of migrant workers in the fairs and carnivals, and also addresses petitions filed in 2003 and 2005 by Farmworker Justice, Northwest Workers' Justice Project and other organizations. The signing represents the first such ministerial declaration signed between the U.S. and Mexico in twelve years. According to Sarah Rempel, CDM Policy Director, "The fact that the labor secretaries are addressing abuses faced by guestworkers in their first ever meeting sends a strong statement about the critical importance of this pressing issue."

In CDM's petition, fair and carnival workers alleged that they were paid below minimum wage, were deprived of overtime wages, and were not paid for all the hours they worked. Workers also paid hefty recruitment fees and other costs in Mexico in order to get jobs in the United States."Migrants' rights should be protected. We go to work in the United States, to help U.S. companies with their business. To be exploited like this is an injustice," Leonardo Cortez, former H-2B fair and carnival and petitioner, insisted.

According to the NAALC, now in its twentieth year, Canada, Mexico, and the United States are obliged to provide the same labor and employment protections to migrant workers as to their own nationals. But, as described in CDM's petition, the U.S. is not meeting its obligations.

"We are pleased to see action being taken in response to these petitions, but the success of this process will depend on its implementation. CDM looks forward to engaging with the DOL and STPS in the upcoming stakeholder meetings," stated Rachel Micah-Jones, Executive Director of CDM. The implementation must include pre-departure education, increased enforcement of labor and employment laws, and access to legal services for guestworkers.

"Despite the long delay in this process, we are pleased that the governments of the United States and Mexico will discuss the longstanding concerns about the unequal treatment of H-2A agricultural workers under U.S. labor laws and the need for greater enforcement of farmworkers' labor rights on North Carolina's farms," said Bruce Goldstein, President of Farmworker Justice, a national advocacy group that filed one of the formal complaints that the labor ministers are discussing. "Both governments have a responsibility to end the rampant abuses suffered by guestworkers in the tobacco and other harvests in North Carolina."

Today's ministerial declaration is a first step for the governments to ensure that migrant workers' rights are respected under the international treaty. It is an important step and worth applauding, but there is more work to be done.

Today we celebrate an important victory in the fight for migrant workers' rights.

Thomas Perez, U.S. Secretary of Labor, and Alfonso Navarrete Prida, Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare for Mexico, will meet face-to-face for the first time. They will engage in ministerial consultations and sign a joint declaration pursuant to the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), the labor side accord to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The declaration responds to a petition filed by CDM in 2011 on behalf of migrant workers in the fairs and carnivals, and also addresses petitions filed in 2003 and 2005 by Farmworker Justice, Northwest Workers' Justice Project and other organizations. The signing represents the first such ministerial declaration signed between the U.S. and Mexico in twelve years. According to Sarah Rempel, CDM Policy Director, "The fact that the labor secretaries are addressing abuses faced by guestworkers in their first ever meeting sends a strong statement about the critical importance of this pressing issue."

In CDM's petition, fair and carnival workers alleged that they were paid below minimum wage, were deprived of overtime wages, and were not paid for all the hours they worked. Workers also paid hefty recruitment fees and other costs in Mexico in order to get jobs in the United States."Migrants' rights should be protected. We go to work in the United States, to help U.S. companies with their business. To be exploited like this is an injustice," Leonardo Cortez, former H-2B fair and carnival and petitioner, insisted.

According to the NAALC, now in its twentieth year, Canada, Mexico, and the United States are obliged to provide the same labor and employment protections to migrant workers as to their own nationals. But, as described in CDM's petition, the U.S. is not meeting its obligations.

"We are pleased to see action being taken in response to these petitions, but the success of this process will depend on its implementation. CDM looks forward to engaging with the DOL and STPS in the upcoming stakeholder meetings," stated Rachel Micah-Jones, Executive Director of CDM. The implementation must include pre-departure education, increased enforcement of labor and employment laws, and access to legal services for guestworkers.

"Despite the long delay in this process, we are pleased that the governments of the United States and Mexico will discuss the longstanding concerns about the unequal treatment of H-2A agricultural workers under U.S. labor laws and the need for greater enforcement of farmworkers' labor rights on North Carolina's farms," said Bruce Goldstein, President of Farmworker Justice, a national advocacy group that filed one of the formal complaints that the labor ministers are discussing. "Both governments have a responsibility to end the rampant abuses suffered by guestworkers in the tobacco and other harvests in North Carolina."

Today's ministerial declaration is a first step for the governments to ensure that migrant workers' rights are respected under the international treaty. It is an important step and worth applauding, but there is more work to be done.