Hypocrisy alert: Clinton-Obama NAFTA criticism

Canada and even Mexico have subscribed to more International Labor Organization conventions than the U.S. Per McClatchy, the scorecard is Mexico 70, Canada 28, U.S. 14:

Mexico was among the ILO members that adopted a declaration of principles and rights for workers in 1998. These include the right of association, the right to organize and bargain collectively, the prohibition of forced or compulsory labor, the elimination of child labor and nondiscrimination in employment.

The most recent ILO report on infringement of collective-bargaining rights, issued in November, included charges against several Latin American governments but no complaints that Mexico has failed to protect workers' bargaining rights.

In its most recent survey of the Americas, in 2006, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions had a single line about Mexico: that garment workers at times had to organize without the knowledge of their employers. The confederation devoted an entire paragraph each to union-busting activities in the United States and Canada.

I’ll admit it’s news to me and an eye-opener, not on Canada, but on Mexico.

And, in part of why McClatchy stands head and shoulders above other newspaper chains, they called out both campaigns on this issue:

In interviews with McClatchy, representatives of the Clinton and Obama campaigns couldn't cite a single labor or environmental dispute in Mexico or Canada when they argued that the two countries have shirked NAFTA or ILO commitments.

Now, on the environmental side, that doesn’t address the issue of whether or not environmental standards associated with NAFTA are tough enough. They certainly aren’t with the WTO as it now stands.

Nonetheless, it puts NAFTA-bashing in a whole new light.