IV. Events of 1998

A.   Meetings of the Executive Director with the National Advisory Committees of the United States, Mexico and Canada

The Council Designees invited the Executive Director of the Secretariat to meet with the Advisory Committees of their respective countries to exchange points of view on the work of the Secretariat in order to help find ways of better fulfilling the Secretariat's objectives.

The first of these visits took place on December 5, 1997, in the city of Baltimore, with the National Advisory Committee of the United States. During this meeting, the general goals of the Commission were outlined, together with the Secretariat's plans and programs; special emphasis was placed on the areas of research and international cooperative activities.

On May 14, 1998, the Executive Director traveled to Mexico City, accompanied by the Director of Consultations and Evaluations, Leoncio Lara, and by Publications Coordinator Héctor Toledano, to meet with the Mexican National Advisory Committee. During this meeting, the jurisdiction and functions of the Secretariat were explained, and ongoing studies and reports were described. The cooperative activities related to the Seminar on Incomes and Productivity and the duties of the Working Group on Transborder Workers Compensation were also addressed. As in the meeting with the United States National Advisory Committee, this visit ended with a session of questions which were answered by the Executive Director.

On September 18, 1998, the Executive Director concluded his meetings with these committees in the National Capital Region of Canada, where he addressed the Canadian National Advisory Committee. This meeting focused on Secretariat work plans and programs, while also dealing with the progress made in the areas of research and publications. Attention was also given to the participation of the Secretariat in the cooperative activities organized by the three countries, especially those related to the Occupational Safety and Health Week, which is jointly organized on an annual basis. Finally, the Executive Director answered the questions posed by Committee members.

The working group on workers compensation for transborder workers held its first meeting at the Secretariat in Dallas on February 18, 1998, to review its draft questionnaire. The basic work plan of the group consisted of: 1) a comparative study of the workers compensation systems of Canada, Mexico and the United States; 2) a questionnaire to workers compensation administrators concerning the issues that have arisen or may arise; 3) a possible quantitative study of the scale and scope of the perceived issues, if deemed necessary; and 4) the preparation of a public report containing the above, produced in the three official languages of the Commission and made available to interested parties in the community. This phase of the process would be subject to the provisions of the NAALC regarding Council approval of the publication of Secretariat reports.

George Gomez, Executive Director of the International Association of Industrial Accidents Boards and Commissions (IAIABC), took on the responsibility of completing the draft issues questionnaire. The Canadian and United States working group members reviewed the revisions at the March 1998 meeting of the IAIABC in Kansas. The Secretariat began work on incorporating the comments of the working group members into its comparative study of the national systems.

The Secretariat received the questionnaire and produced it in the three official languages of the NAALC in July 1998. The Secretariat contracted with Kate Kimpan, Director of Research, Workers Compensation for the State of Minnesota, in July 1998 to elicit responses and compile them for the United States and Canada. In September 1998 the questionnaire was mailed to all 50 states in the United States as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, to all 12 workers compensation boards of the 10 provinces and two territories in Canada, and to the Subsecretary of Labor and Social Welfare in Mexico. The forms were mailed by the Secretariat, and a response was requested by February 1999.

The Secretariat expects to compile the reports of the results from the United States, Canada and Mexico into a final report, which it plans to circulate to members of the working group and workers compensation administrators in the three countries.

The Honourable Harold Gilleshammer, Minister of Labour for Manitoba, visited the offices of the Secretariat in Dallas on the morning of February 26. He met with Executive Director John McKennirey to discuss the work of the Secretariat and other recent developments of interest. Later that day Mr. McKennirey and Mr. Gilleshammer visited the Canadian Consulate General, where they met with Consul General Jon Swanson.

For the second consecutive year the Commission for Labor Cooperation brought together in Dallas prominent academic economists and high-level labor and business representatives to exchange their ideas and experiences on the linkages between incomes and productivity in the North American region.

The objective of the 1998 North American Seminar on Incomes and Productivity was to analyze the dynamics of incomes and productivity in the auto industry, one of the first industrial sectors to become "globalized," and, more broadly, to examine the question of incomes and productivity in a cross-sectorial analytical perspective.

Authors were invited to address such questions as: How is productivity linked to income at the workplace level? What is the impact of new forms of work organization? How do employment factors such as continuous learning and technological change interface with the changing structure of the workforce? How do subcontractors and contingent workers fit in? Is there a relationship between unionization and income/productivity performance? How does international integration affect workplace issues?

The Seminar was sponsored by the Commission for Labor Cooperation through its Secretariat and was co-sponsored by Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, North American Policy Studies Program; Laval University-Quebec, Department of Industrial Relations; and The Center for the Study of Western Hemispheric Trade (Texas A/M University and the University of Texas at Austin).

The proceedings of the event were published by the Secretariat under the title Incomes and Productivity in North America: Papers from the 1998 Seminar, available in the three official languages of the NAALC.

The trinational seminar "Evolución de los mercados laborales y el papel de los gobiernos" was organized by Mexico's National Administrative Office with the aim of presenting and analyzing worker training programs in Canada, Mexico and the United States, as well as the operation of employment services in each of these countries. The seminar was attended by officials involved in the administration of training programs and employment services in the three countries, and by academics and people interested in worker training.

The papers dealt with topics like working conditions in the countries of North America; their educational and training characteristics; the relationship between training systems and workplace training programs; labor force training and instruction programs; and the operation of employment services in the three countries, together with their main achievements and difficulties. The issues analyzed at this seminar included the growth of average workforce educational levels. In all three countries, a growing proportion of workers have post-secondary education. In Canada and the United States employment has grown fastest in occupations requiring a higher educational level, while in Mexico, the greatest increase has been in occupations requiring a medium educational level.

Regarding worker instruction and training programs, the papers mentioned the efforts made in each country to link training programs to company workforce requirements. Generally speaking, it has been shown that workers who receive formal training undergo enhanced growth in income and productivity.

This event was sponsored by the National Administrative Office of the United States, the Canadian Government, the Secretariat of the Commission for Labor Cooperation, and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), through the Institute for Industrial Relations, the School of Law, the Latin American Center, International Studies and Overseas Programs, and the North American Integration and Development Center.

The objective of the conference was to provide a forum for trade unionists, business leaders, politicians, academics and members of nongovernmental organizations to evaluate the new institutions derived from NAFTA, through the analysis of specific case studies. An analysis of NAFTA was also made in terms of cooperation and labor negotiations. Likewise, the role played by new institutions, such as the Commission for Labor Cooperation, was examined with regard to this process of change and adjustment.

The conference was well-attended by academics, trade unionists, members of nongovernmental organizations, as well as by staff members of the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, the Secretariat of the Commission for Labor Cooperation, the U.S. and Canadian NAOs, the North American Development Bank, and members of sponsoring institutions and agencies. In the first part of the conference, which focused on labor relations and North American integration, the issues of capital mobility, international cooperation and the new NAFTA institutions were discussed. A study by the Secretariat of the Commission for Labor Cooperation entitled Plant Closings and Labor Rights was also presented. The second part dealt with the role played by the new institutions derived from NAFTA, economic integration and labor cooperation. Papers focused on NAFTA and the challenges faced by the new institutions stemming from its activities: the Commission for Labor Cooperation, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, border zone environmental issues, banking perspectives for North American development, and the corresponding position of the nongovernmental organizations. The conference ended with a panel on perspectives and observations on North American cooperation. A publication is available from UCLA.

This conference was another international cooperative activity under the NAALC, organized by the United States in collaboration with Mexico and Canada. It was intended to examine the practices developed by multinational companies to deal with the diversity of and differences between the nations of the region and to adapt to varying legal, cultural and economic situations. The evaluation of the relations between Latin American trade unions and multinational companies also formed part of this event.

The conference format included a panel of three experts, one for each country, and a round table with six participants. These consisted of one worker and one employer representative for each country, whose contributions were guided by a moderator. The presence of worker, employer and government representatives gave this event added interest and allowed the expression of differing points of view.

Canada marked the 1998 North American OSH Week with numerous activities. Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Labour at the time, joined by the U.S. Ambassador and a representative from the Mexican Embassy, officially launched the week on Parliament Hill. The Labour Branch of Human Resources Development Canada, in conjunction with the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) and the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering, coordinated various events across Canada. These events included awareness sessions and fairs, presentations of recognition awards, workplace visits and speeches.

For the second annual North American Occupational Safety and Health (NAOSH) Week, the U.S. NAO developed the 1998 NAOSH brochure and mailed over 1500 copies to organizations. Also, the U.S. NAO jointly with OSHA disseminated occupational safety and health information through videos and written material during that week.

In Mexico, the Second Occupational Safety and Health Week was held in Mexico City on May 20-22. Its main objective was to highlight the importance of different elements of safety and health in plant management and to exchange experiences on specific subjects to promote a better culture of prevention in different sectors of society. The event was aimed at security managers and supervisors, industrial relations experts, labor unions, workers and other people involved in risk prevention. Business, labor, academic and government representatives took part in the event.

I. Working Group on Labor Market Data Comparability

In 1998, the Parties established a Working Group on Labor Market Data Comparability to assist the Secretariat in preparing labor market comparisons. The Working Group, comprising senior government labor market economists from the three countries, provides advice and liaison to Secretariat economists. The agenda of the Working Group includes:

• Development of an understanding of the problems, methodologies and criteria used for the creation of labor market data in each country.
• Preparation of a handbook on comparability issues for use by government statisticians and analysts researching labor markets in North America.
• Comparison of the issues and approaches identified by the Secretariat with those used by analogous organizations, such as the International Labour Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
• Development of possible measures that could be used by the Parties to improve the comparability of labor market statistics in North America.

The Working Group began meeting in late 1998.

This trinational conference, organized by the Canadian NAO, followed on the conference on industrial relations held in Montreal on March 18-20, 1996, and the workshop on nonstandard work held in Ottawa on November 25-26, 1996.

The purpose of this conference was to enable university, business, labor and government representatives from the three NAFTA countries to analyze the phenomena of contracting out and contract labor. The industrial relations systems in place in North America were compared and their adaptation to the new world of work was discussed. The conference was also designed to promote information-sharing and diverse perspectives on specific cases and the effects of contracting out on contract labor.

Over 100 union, management and government representatives as well as scholars and labor lawyers participated in this conference. The following topics were discussed: the international and domestic contexts, the legislative frameworks in place in North America as they relate to contract labor and contracting out, the options available to companies, how these phenomena work in North America and where they are headed. Case studies were presented in the high technology, telecommunication, mining and public sectors. These case studies were designed to examine why companies opt for contracting out and contract labor and what conclusions can be drawn from experience. A trinational business-labor panel also debated the advantages and drawbacks of these new forms of work.

Transcripts of the conference are available from the Canadian NAO.