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There has been talk of “reforming” (which doesn’t necessarily mean making better, just changing) the labor laws in this country. Like most Administration proposals it generates a lot of promises and but promises to eventually peter out.

Roubani Global Economics gives the pro-administration spin to the issues leaving out the drawbacks (like making it nearly impossible to form a union… which would require permission from the Secretary of Labor AND the employer… good luck with that!) and, of course, Roubani is  looking at Mexico as a “competitor” with countries like China where labor rights boil down to if you labor the way we tell you, we won’t kill you.

I’m not going to get into my usual “what sucks about NAFTA” riff — which was supposed to create a North American common market, but isn’t working in good part because the United States buys much of its goods from Chinese and other cheap labor (and no labor rights) states, destroying well-paying jobs throughout North America.  I am going to note that in a country where streets and colonias are named “Articulo 123” for the clause in the Constitution that gives labor the right to strike — and where the right to strike is recognized by government agencies and is considered a normal enough event that the mailman isn’t expected to cross a picket line — I wouldn’t put any more stock into the proposed “reforms” than into any other administration-backed “reform” which seems designed NOT for the benefit of Mexicans, but for foreign interests.