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USMCA Is a Huge Win for Working People

Richard Trumka
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After a quarter century of suffering under the failed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and 18 months of hard-fought negotiations, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is now proud to endorse a better deal for working people: the United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USCMA), which passed with bipartisan support in the House of Representatives on Thursday, while the Senate is expected to hold a vote on the bill in the new year.

NAFTA was written for those at the top. It enriched corporations at the expense of working families across North America, and the US is estimated to have lost as many as 800,000 jobs to Mexico between 1997 and 2013 as a result. Mexican workers toiled under poverty wages and repressive conditions, which American and Canadian corporations used to slash pay and reduce benefits for workers across the continent. This can never happen again.Read the full opinion on CNN