In February of this year, union and labor organizers from the United States, Canada, and Mexico convened in Los Angeles for the annual Tri-national labor gathering. Co-hosted with the UCLA Labor Center, and the Solidarity Center of the AFL-CIO, the tri-national gathering creates a space for international dialogue amongst key stakeholders from North America. The function of this dialogue is the creation and enshrining of solidarity amongst unions and workers that transcends borders along the supply chain and throughout their industries. The 2024 edition was titled: “Worker Solidarity in Action: A Tri-national Labor Response to the USMCA”.
In his report on the conference, writer, photographer, former factory worker, and union organizer, David Bacon details the challenges and responses that the USMCA or T-MEC in Spanish (United States, Mexico, Canada trade agreement) has posed to workers along the international supply chain. Testimonials from union and labor organizers highlight the growing solidarity movement that brings in workers in the maquiladoras (duty and or tariff-free) to those on phone apps looking for their next customer (platform or gig workers). This growing solidarity isn’t without contradictions and pushback from capital and political currents in all three countries.
The participants offer their analysis of the upcoming challenges and successes on their shop floors and the political climate surrounding their organization efforts. In the face of expanding and shifting multinational corporations, the need for an equally robust and flexible international labor movement is being met and cultivated by workers and organizers in new frontiers of labor organizing and in spaces without a traditional shop floor. In analyzing the responsiveness and creativity within the movement, this report highlights some strategic plans for future collaborations among auto workers, gig workers, and homecare provider unions in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
