Civil Society Activism under US Free Trade Agreements: The Effects of Actorness on Decent Work

Abstract

US free trade agreements comprise unique provisions that enable civil society to present public complaints against labor rights violations occurring in the US or its trade partners. To date, a variety of complainants have used these mechanisms, including (inter)national trade unions, human rights organizations, and a priest. And yet, little is known about the submissions' nature of agency and the effects it has on the procedural continuations to address illicit labor practices. To fill this research lacuna, this article employs a multidisciplinary framework of 'actorness' that measures the submitters' diversity (professionalism/non-professionalism, collectivism/individualism, transnationalism/nationalism) and their effectiveness (rejection/acceptance of submissions and further procedural follow-ups). Combining quantitative examination with in-depth analysis of two diverse cases of actorness, and drawing on expert interviews, public reports, and minutes of meetings, the study reveals that the majority of public submissions were of professional, collective, and transnational nature. However, contrary to what extant literature suggests, this is not a guarantee that they achieve more far-reaching procedural steps in the protection of workers. Non-professional, individual, and national actorness can compensate for the advantages of professionalism, collectivism, and transnationalism.

État des lieux de la négociation collective européenne au niveau interprofessionnel

“…Dans l'hypothèse extrême -prévue par l'AECG -où un rapport final serait produit par un groupe d'experts, aucune sanction, de nature pécuniaire ou commerciale, ne peut être infligée à l'encontre de l'une des parties. Par comparaison, les procédures très détaillées de réception et de traitement des plaintes aménagées dans les accords de libre-échange liant les États-Unis ou le Canada, en cas de violation alléguée des droits des travailleurs d'une des parties, s'avèrent nettement plus favorables à l'expression des alliances syndicales (Oehri, 2017). En outre, les accords nordaméricains imposent fréquemment à leurs partenaires commerciaux une conditionnalité, et ce dès le stade de la pré-ratification, ouvrant de fait un espace d'expression plus aisé aux coalitions syndicales transnationales.…”

Where Symbolism Prospers: An Analysis of the Impact on Enabling Rights of Labour Standards Provisions in Trade Agreements with South Korea

“…While complaints procedures are included in the US-Korea and Canada-Korea FTAs, Korea has not yet received any complaints (International Cooperation Division, Ministry of Employment and Labor, Government of Korea, personal communication, February 10, 2017;Trade Policy and Negotiations Branch, Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada, Government of Canada, personal communication, April 28, 2017;US DOL, 2017b). Such complaints could make a difference in terms of putting violations on the political map (see Oehri, 2017;Van Roozendaal, 2015), even though they might not actually change the situation. Additionally, the fact that under the same two FTAs obligations with respect to labour can only be violated when they affect trade and investment is also a strong limitation to the application of sanctions, as many of the problems discussed do not necessarily involve sectors which are trade-related.…”

Labour Standards and Trade: In Search of Impact and Alternative Instruments

“…The country studies in this volume on South Korea (Van Roozendaal, 2017), Peru (Orbie, van den Putte, & Martens, 2017), and also to a certain extent Brazil (Riethof, 2017), are illustrations of this approach. Also Oehri (2017) departs from a local perspective, examining civil society complaints in the Dominican Republic and Mexico. In addition to answering the question how trade agreements influence labour practices, the study by Gansemans, Martens, D'Haese and Orbie (2017) turns the question around, and looks at how the protection of labour standards influences market access.…”

“…Different studies in this thematic issue address intermediate impact. The case study by Oehri (2017) on the US FTAs complaint procedure is an example of the development of institutions. In this thematic issue, this is also addressed in the study by Marx, Ebert and Hachez (2017), which points to improvements in the dispute settlement mechanism in EU and US FTAs.…”

“…She also shows that civil society empowerment can be an unintended consequence of trade agreements, as opposition to the Free Trade Area of the Americas has fostered regional civil society collaboration. The clearest result comes from the study by Oehri (2017), which looks at the opportunity US FTAs provide to file complaints about non-compliance with labour rights provisions in the labour chapters of the agreements. She shows that not only powerful civil society organisations have a chance of having a compliance accepted.…”