At public hearings on the review of the T-MECthe labor discussion ceased to be an accessory chapter and was placed at the center of the North American trade debate. The intervention of Alejandro Martínez Araiza, general secretary of the National Food and Trade Union (SNAC) and the only Mexican union leader summoned by the United States government, evidenced this inflection: the treaty, he said, must stop being just a market access agreement and be consolidated as a regional social pact.
From the beginning of his exhibition, Martínez Araiza marked a clear line. “There is no fair trade without labor justice”he stated before officials, legislators and union representatives of the three countries. Under that premise, he presented the roadmap that he called “the Labor Re-evolution”, structured around three proposals that, he maintained, seek to correct historical asymmetries of the integration model.
The first of them was the salary issue and the formalization of employment in Mexico. The union leader stated that regional competitiveness cannot continue to rest on low wages and high informality. “We are not talking about imposing a minimum wage sectoral or an arbitrary figure,” he clarified, but rather to guarantee an income that allows one to live with dignity.
In that sense, he put a reference on the table, “a head of family in Mexico must be able to support a household of at least four people; a remunerative salary should start at 1,750 dollars per month (31,516 pesos) as a starting point.” For Martínez Araiza, moving in this direction would not only reduce inequality, but would also strengthen the internal market and social stability in the region.
The second axis of his intervention focused on the Rapid Response Mechanism (MLRR), one of the most visible tools of the labor chapter of the T-MEC. Although he recognized that the mechanism has been relevant in making visible violations of freedom of association in Mexico, he warned that its scope remains limited.
“Chapter 23-A cannot be an asymmetric instrument; it must be applied and strengthened for the three countries,” he said. In his vision, the MLRR must evolve into a scheme that not only sanctions non-compliance, but also explicitly protects authentic unions and workers who seek to organize without retaliation. “Without real freedom of association, any treaty is a dead letter,” he emphasized.
The third proposal introduced a less traditional element to the trade agenda: the impact of new technologies, particularly artificial intelligence. Martínez Araiza issued a warning that resonated among attendees when referring to the arrival of what he called “AI migrants,” mostly coming from Asian technological developments. “We are facing a real risk of displacing tens of millions of workers,” he warned, while pointing out possible collateral effects such as increased energy costs and the general increase in the cost of living.
For the union leader, the debate is not technological but political
and social. “Technology must be at the service of humanity, not the other way around,” he said, and called for building safeguards and regional regulatory frameworks that prevent automation from deepening existing gaps.
The SNAC proposals were not isolated. During the hearings, several unions from the United States and Canada expressed agreement on the need to raise labor standards, improve productivity and reduce inequalities, which points to an unprecedented union convergence in the region.
On the government side, interest was evident. Andrea Rojas, representative of the United States Department of Commercedirectly questioned the viability of the proposed salary schemes and explored the possibility of defining base salaries by industry or region, reflecting the attention that different US agencies are paying to the economic and social impact of the labor agenda.
Beyond the technical differences, Martínez Araiza said that the review of the T-MEC will not be limited to rules of origin or energy chapters. “At this stage, the future of the trade agreement increasingly depends on how North America decides to balance competitiveness, wages, labor rights and technology.”
