Talking to Members of Congress about NAFTA Renegotiation

Resources for Delivering the #ReplaceNAFTA Organizational Sign-On Letter

Thank you for your interest in delivering a copy of the #ReplaceNAFTA Organizational Sign-On Letter to your local Member of Congress. Below are the resources you’ll need to get started.

Most people are hand-delivering the letter at Congressional offices when U.S. Representatives are home over the Spring Congressional Recess from March 23 to April 9, 2018.

There are two basic options: (1) to schedule a meeting with the Member of Congress or their staff to discuss your NAFTA concerns or (2) to drop into the office any time they’re open and deliver the letter without an appointment. Meeting directly with the Congress member is obviously ideal, but taking the lead on either of these options is incredibly helpful.

Suggested talking points for a meeting are below, along with some state-specific factsheets and other optional resources. Whether you bring a representative from any partners organizations along with you is entirely up to you. The key thing is to print out and bring a copy of the letter along with you.

Please let us know if you’re doing a letter delivery so we can give you any recent updates on your particular Member of Congress, and let you know if anyone else in your area has signed up to do likewise.  Please email us at letterdelivery@citizenstrade.org.

Likewise, if you have any questions, please write to letterdelivery@citizenstrade.org.

The Key Document to Print and Deliver
The #ReplaceNAFTA Organizational Sign-On Letter

Finding Your Member of Congress
You can look up your Members of Congress in this directory, then click on the link to their website to find their local office addresses and contact information.

Again, you can either schedule a meeting with the Member of Congress or their staff to discuss your NAFTA concerns or simply drop into the office any time they’re open and deliver the letter without an appointment. It’s up to you.

Sample Delivery Meeting Talking Points
If you do get a meeting with your Member of Congress or their staff, here are some suggested talking points:

• Thank you for taking the time to meet with us to discuss the ongoing NAFTA renegotiation.
• Our members have never been happy with NAFTA. Their starting point here is that NAFTA is a deal that’s helping corporations outsource more-and-more middle class jobs every week, while also putting health and environmental standards at risk. They see NAFTA as an example of government helping corporate elites at the expense our families and our communities.
• This letter — signed by over a thousand organizations in our state and across the country — outlines how we can take advantage of NAFTA’s renegotiation to begin realigning trade policy in the interests of working people and the planet.
• What we need from Congress is hold the administration accountable in the NAFTA renegotiation.
• The President promised to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States and to raise Americans’ wages — but if he fails to get a deal that raises wages in Mexico and levels the playing field upward, working families in our state will continue to see their jobs outsourced and their incomes suffer.
• U.S. negotiators have reportedly made some good proposals on eliminating ISDS and ending restrictions on public procurement, but after seven major rounds of negotiations, the administration still hasn’t demanded the strong labor and environmental standards with swift and certain enforcement that are needed to prevent companies from moving jobs to Mexico to pay workers poverty wages and dump toxins and then import those products back here for sale.
• Frankly, we see a number of Congress members out there trying to defend NAFTA and defend the status quo. We need more voices holding the administration to account on whether it’s really going to prioritize working families in these negotiations.
• CLOSE WITH AN ASK: Are you willing to take a public stance — either with a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative, or a press statement on your website, or an op-ed, or in some other format — that you’ll oppose any new version of NAFTA that doesn’t include strong labor and environmental standards and doesn’t eliminate ISDS?

Responding to the Question “What’s your position NAFTA withdrawal?”
The NAFTA status quo of continuing to outsource more-and-more jobs every week, while also continuing to put environmental and public health laws at risk, is obviously unacceptable.

Eliminating NAFTA is better than business-as-usual — but if we really want to create jobs, raise wages and improve environmental and health standards in our state and across the continent, we actually do need better policies in place.

In particular, we need an enforceable agreement that protects labor and environmental rights for Mexican workers and raise wages there, otherwise, even if NAFTA were eliminated, corporations will continue to outsource jobs there to take advantage of sweatshop wages and lax environmental standards.

Since NAFTA is being renegotiated right now, let’s make sure we’re being clear about what our demands are. This letter spells them out really clearly.

Additional Resources

State-Specific Factsheets on NAFTA-Related Job Loss and Wage Suppression

Detailed Article on Renegotiating Labor Rights in NAFTA

Democratic Freshmen’s NAFTA Renegotiation Demands — thank freshmen on this letter!

House Letter on Labor Rights in NAFTA — thank Representatives on this letter!

AFL-CIO’s NAFTA Renegotiation Demands

Sierra Club’s NAFTA Renegotiation Activist Toolkit

Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy’s NAFTA Renegotiation Benchmarks