One major reason: the USMCA failed to add the provisions needed to prevent corporations from shipping good-paying jobs to Mexico to take advantage of ongoing labor rights violations, lax pollution controls, and abysmally low wages. (4/4)

Since the USMCA was negotiated by President Trump during his first term, the U.S. trade deficit has skyrocketed. (3/4)

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) — also known as “NAFTA 2.0” — has failed to deliver any of its promised benefits to workers. It has just entered a mandatory review period, during which countries can make changes to the pact — or extend it as written for another 16 years. (2/4)

Even so, Local 15 was able to repel raids by the AFL-affiliated Tobacco Workers International Union in the 1950s, and cigar factory workers went on to play important roles in local civil rights struggles. (7/7)

FTA was targeted by the postwar attacks on militant unions as “communist-dominated,” and was expelled from the CIO in 1950. (6/7)

In 1947, Local 15 members Anna Lee Bonneau and Evelyn Risher attended a workshop at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee and taught the song to the school’s co-founder Zilphia Horton, who later taught it to folk singer Pete Seeger. (5/7)

On the picket line, Local 15 member Lucille Simmons would frequently sing one of her favorite hymns, “I Will Overcome,” changing the “I” to “we” and improvising verses to adapt the song to a labor context: “We will organize,” “We will win our rights,” and “We will win this fight.” (4/7)

FTA was, like UE, committed to uniting all workers regardless of race and gender, and the Charleston strike was notable for interracial solidarity between Black and white workers at the height of Jim Crow. (3/7)