Goodyear plant conditions raise concerns about Mexican labor reforms - U.S. lawmakers

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

BUSINESS NEWS JULY 29, 2019 / 8:41 PM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO

Goodyear plant conditions raise concerns about Mexican labor reforms - U.S. lawmakers

Andrea Shalal
3 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of U.S. Democratic lawmakers on Monday criticized Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co (GT.O) for refusing to let them visit its Mexican plant, and said poor conditions there raised questions about Mexican labor reforms seen as key to ensuring passage of a new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.

Four of the nine House of Representatives Democrats who are negotiating with the Trump administration about the trade deal spelled out their concerns in a letter to Goodyear’s chief executive, Richard Kramer.

“We are ... disappointed that an iconic American company like Goodyear .... is failing to provide its workers in Mexico with basic labor rights that are recognized internationally and under Mexican law,” Representative Earl Blumenauer, chairman of the trade subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee, and three other Democrats wrote in the letter.

“While we are told that Mexico’s labor reforms and a renewed NAFTA will lead to positive change in Mexico and in America, what we saw at Goodyear clearly illustrates the entrenched way of doing business in Mexico that is based on exploiting a powerless workforce,” they said.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-usmca-goodyear/goodyear-plant-conditions-raise-concerns-about-mexican-labor-reforms-u-s-lawmakers-idUSKCN1UP01C

[Judi Lynn]

1. Freedom to exploit the workers is the reason US-based corporations are attracted to Latin America,

cheap labor pool they are encouraged by corrupt politicians to pay nearly slave wages, with almost no safety regulations, pensions, health insurance, and occasionally even the assistance of death squads used to terrorize laborers who try to organize unions in order to get help.

It's all there to be discovered by anyone willing to invest some time and personal energy researching, it's just not discussed by our corporate media.