Mario Armas/AP Photo
The main entrance to the General Motors assembly plant in the city of Silao, Mexico, where in 2022 workers were allowed to choose their own union
When workers in Michigan demand higher wages, employers threaten to move production to Mexico. When workers in Alabama organize, companies say, “It’s cheaper for us to do this in China.” Unchecked power of multinational corporations forces the most vulnerable workers across the globe to endure poverty wages and unsafe conditions. This is true here at home and abroad.
This is why we need an economic policy that prioritizes the well-being of workers around the world. We need a policy that recognizes that the right to organize is good for all workers, and that trade should be used to create opportunity, grow good jobs, and build a strong middle class everywhere.
This was the vision behind President Biden’s global labor rights strategy, announced in November 2023. It was the vision behind the Biden Department of Labor (DOL), which prioritized investments in and support for workers’ rights, including protecting the right of Indonesian workers to unionize in critical minerals sectors; supporting labor rights and preventing violence against maquila workers in Guatemala; addressing child labor in cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and combating forced labor in the cotton sector in Uzbekistan. These efforts matter not only because every worker should be treated with dignity and respect, and not only because cobalt mined in the DRC is used in American cars and cellphones. These programs also help level the playing field for workers in the U.S.
Decades of past trade policies have shown Americans that addressing weak standards abroad is necessary to protect standards in the U.S.
All of these efforts to lift up working people and protect U.S. workers have been eliminated by Elon Musk’s cuts. To say these cuts benefit American workers is both ignorant and dangerous.
The work at DOL to protect international labor rights is carried out by the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB). The majority of this work is about combating child labor and forced labor. For example, DOL’s 2023 annual child labor report led Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire—countries that produce cocoa for chocolate bought by American consumers—to take steps to address child labor. Uzbekistan successfully addressed forced labor and child labor in the cotton sector, which competes with American cotton growers and exporters. Argentina’s government and private sector built technical assistance programs developed by the DOL in the blueberry sector, ensuring that children and teenagers had access to child care and enrichment programs, effectively addressing child labor in that sector.
ILAB’s staff are experts with decades of knowledge and trust built over time that allows them to get information that companies would prefer to hide. These efforts aren’t charitable humanitarianism and they don’t only protect children around the world from abuse; they protect American jobs by preventing unfair competition from products made with forced and child labor. American workers competing against exploited people in other countries creates tremendous downward pressure on U.S. labor standards; it also contributes to the powerful forces that have been driving the offshoring of manufacturers and producers for more than a generation. DOL’s work also ensures that American consumers and the U.S. government don’t unknowingly purchase imported products produced by forced labor or child labor.
Ironically, the Trump administration has acknowledged wage suppression as a form of unfair competition in its memorandum on reciprocal trade. Yet a few days ago, Musk’s DOGE team unilaterally cut ILAB’s existing grants that go to fighting forced labor and child labor.
This is where the Musk-led cuts reveal the hypocrisy and incompetence of the administration’s approach to workers’ rights. On the one hand, the Trump administration recognizes wage suppression abroad as a form of unfair competition, but on the other, they’ve cut the very agency that combats such wage suppression.
The DOL’s investments and expertise in communities around the world allows the U.S. to enforce our trade agreements and our laws, like the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The USMCA included resources to promote labor rights in Mexico, because decades of past trade policies have shown Americans that addressing weak standards abroad is necessary to protect standards in the U.S. ILAB has worked hand in hand with its counterparts in Mexico to ensure that tens of thousands of Mexican workers could freely choose a union and improve their wages and working conditions at the bargaining table, not only helping workers in Mexico to achieve more economic security but also eliminating one important source of unfair competition in the manufacturing sector and finally curbing the incentives for offshoring through trade.
For example, in 2022 at the General Motors plant in Silao, Mexico, which makes the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks, workers were able to choose their own union. In the union’s first contract, they received an 8.5 percent pay increase, bigger bonuses and grocery vouchers, and a mandatory day off on Christmas Eve. The workers also now have a mechanism to address long-standing concerns around safety and scheduling with the employer.
The cuts to DOL mean workers in the U.S. and workers abroad are more likely to suffer abuses. American businesses will lack the information they need to make informed decisions about sourcing and investment. American consumers will be more likely to unwittingly purchase products produced under inhumane conditions. American workers will be trapped in a destructive race to the bottom, suppressing wages everywhere.
This is not an “America First” strategy. It’s a “workers last” strategy.
