On Nov. 16, 2024, the UCLA Labor Center hosted a convening in Mexico City to explore binational research and collaboration opportunities with the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM), the Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro (UAQ), the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), and the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center Mexico office. Held at Casa de la Universidad de California in Mexico City, the gathering focused on advancing labor studies and binational research initiatives in response to the shifting labor landscape under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
Strengthening the Ties Between International Labor Centers
The meeting in Mexico City served as a forum to foster dialogue and lay the groundwork for long-term collaboration between labor centers and labor movements across Mexico and the United States. The UCLA Labor Center and its partners identified mutual research interests and funding opportunities to create a sustainable, bi-national labor research agenda that can contribute to advancing solidarity between labor centers and labor movements.
Participants discussed labor transitions in Mexico, including the shift to electric vehicle (EV) production, the labor conditions of deported call center workers, and the growth of the logistics industry. These research initiatives reflect some of the most pressing labor challenges workers face in both countries, especially the USMCA’s impact on trade, labor conditions, and workers’ rights.
Current Research in Mexico’s Labor Centers
From transnational labor laws to the intersection of immigration and workers’ rights, Mexico’s leading labor centers highlighted the depth and scope of labor studies at Mexican universities. María Xelhuantzi, coordinator of the Permanent Seminar of Labor Studies at UNAM, Javier Salinas, director of the UAQ Labor Center, and Carlos Chavez Becker, director of the Labor Politics and Practices Observatory at UAM, shared their ongoing projects and research on labor issues in Mexico.
Luis Fernando Mora Reyes, a doctoral student at UNAM leading the research team on lithium production and the automotive sector, discusses the importance of binational research.
“The topic of strategic materials, critical materials, including lithium, is not only important for the production of electric vehicles, but also for other products and materials currently being manufactured in Mexico and around the world,” Mora Reyes said. “It is also important for future needs, inventions, changes and evolutions in the production of different components.”
Participants asked questions about the direction of these research projects and how they could be integrated with broader binational research efforts.
Opportunities for Cross-Border Research and Collaboration
Staff from the UCLA Labor Center presented their initiatives in labor studies, emphasizing the importance of cross-border collaboration in areas such as strategic labor research and educational partnerships. UCLA Labor Studies project director Justin McBride, UCLA Labor Center director Saba Waheed, UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment director Tobias Higbie, and UCLA Labor Studies lecturer Paolo Marinaro discussed several current and future research opportunities that align with the interests of Mexico’s labor centers. This included exploring binational educational opportunities and shared research agendas that could create strengthened and better-informed collaboration between the labor centers.
One particularly exciting discussion area was integrating corporate strategic research within key sectors such as automotive manufacturing, call centers and the logistics industry. As the production of electric vehicles becomes more prominent in North America, workers on both sides of the border will face unique challenges related to new technologies, job displacement, and skills training. A collaborative research approach would allow labor centers to better understand and respond to these changes, benefiting labor movements in both countries.
According to Carlos Chavez Becker, director of the Labor Politics and Practices Observatory at UAM, deportees and returnees, in particular, play a significant role in the labor force of call centers. “At UAM, we are exploring the growing cross-border overlaps in the labor markets,” Becker said. “We see significant opportunities for collaborative research on young workers, particularly in call centers staffed with bilingual deportees, as well as in logistics and the emerging EV/auto industries.”
Funding and Grant Opportunities for Labor Research
A central theme of the meeting was the pursuit of funding for collaborative projects. Representatives from institutions such as Alianza MX and the University of California’s Social Impact Collaboratives Grants shared funding opportunities that could support binational labor research. These funding initiatives are designed to support community-engaged research with social justice outcomes and could provide essential resources for labor centers in both the U.S. and Mexico to apply for joint grants for binational research.
Moreover, the discussion centered on how to sustain labor research initiatives long-term, ensuring that the momentum from the meeting translates into concrete, ongoing projects. Participants emphasized the importance of continuous dialogue and collaboration between the labor centers, unions and funding organizations.
Engaging with Labor Unions: The Heart of Labor Studies
The panel with labor leaders from Mexico on how academic research can support their union campaigns encouraged members to take research as an opportunity for direct support. Hugo Tlalpan, general secretary of the Sindicato Independiente de Trabajadores Volkswagen de México (SITIAVW), and Sergio Guerrero, general secretary of the Unión Nacional de Trabajadores por Aplicación (LA UNTA), emphasized the need for research that not only exposes the harsh reality of labor conditions but also works directly with unions to support their organizing efforts.
This exchange created a space for labor researchers to ask questions about how they could engage with unions in meaningful ways, identify key priorities of workers, and develop research that could directly influence union campaigns, policies, and contract negotiations. These dialogues pave the way for future collaborations by strengthening the relationship between labor centers and the broader labor movement.
Looking Ahead: Building a Sustainable Binational Research Agenda
The UCLA Labor Center concluded with excitement for the next steps: formalizing and committing to binational research collaborations. Rolando Javier Salinas García, Director of the UAQ Labor Center, stated, “The 2024 Binational Labor Center Convening between the United States and Mexico, promoted by the UCLA Labor Center, represents an opportunity to collaborate not only through research but also by proposing actions that improve labor conditions for workers in our countries. For the Labor Center at the Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro UAQ, this meeting was very important because it involved recognizing that, despite our differences as nations, we face shared challenges in the labor world that we can address together.”
In the coming months, the UCLA Labor Center and its Mexican counterparts will continue to build on the foundation laid at Casa California in Mexico City, working together to create a sustainable, impactful research agenda that benefits workers across borders and produce labor movement research that can inform the renegotiation of the USMCA trade agreement in 2026.
