Once a member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer claimed to support American workers and organized labor. This was part of the Republican effort to try to build bridges to organized labor, and appeal to working people.
But unfortunately, as soon as she left her post at the Department of Labor, Chavez-DeRemer turned against America’s unions and manufacturing workforce. At a time when U.S. breweries are closing, the former secretary is now choosing to advocate Mexican workers and the companies that underpay them, such as Constellation Brands, which produces beer in Mexico exclusively for export to the United States.
I remember a time when labor secretaries of both parties were champions for the American worker. But this former secretary of Labor stands in stark contrast to those who came before her, now being paid to advocate to keep manufacturing jobs in Mexico.
Consider some recent claims that Constellation is “required” to brew in Mexico because of antitrust issues. Policy experts disagree that Constellation is required to keep its brewing jobs in Mexico, let alone add more brewing capacity there. Yet, the company has budgeted $5 billion to $5.5 billion for beer capital spending from fiscal 2023 through 2026, including a brand-new brewery in Veracruz, Mexico. That was a business decision, as was its earlier attempt to build a $1.4 billion brewery in Mexicali.
Constellation sank roughly $900 million into the Mexicali project before residents voted it down in a 2020 referendum over water consumption. Mexico’s own president at the time noted that brewing beer for export in a place without water amounted to “exporting water.” When the plan collapsed, Constellation picked yet another Mexican site, not an American one.
The Trump administration, which Chavez-DeRemer briefly served in, has said manufacturers should make their products here. The Department of Labor exists to protect American workers, not to vouch for production in Mexico. All of which makes Chavez-DeRemer’s sudden enthusiasm for Mexican beer a betrayal of her role as Labor secretary.
Constellation’s Veracruz brewery and others exist to produce beer using cheap labor exclusively for exporting to the U.S. While this is clearly bad news for American jobs, it hasn’t been good news for workers in Mexico, either. A Mexican labor organization says 270 workers at a local contractor that helped build the plant have gone months without pay. Local contractors even allege that people linked to the project demanded up to 100,000 pesos to release their own equipment from the site. As if that wasn’t bad enough, local reporting also alleges chemical spills killed fish in the stream that the plant will draw its water from.
The real reason Constellation is committed to brewing in Mexico instead of the U.S. is the wage gap. American union brewery workers earn nearly $80,000 a year on average, while Mexican brewery workers earn roughly $3,700. Mexican breweries also pay less in taxes and source their aluminum from China. Imported beer, overwhelmingly non-union and mostly from Mexico, now makes up almost a quarter of the U.S. market.
That’s why several labor unions, including the Steelworkers, Teamsters, Electrical Workers, and Machinists, support a level playing field through the Section 301 process. This process responds to structural excess capacity in Mexico, helping account for these new Mexican breweries going up solely to further flood the American market.
A tariff on beer imported from Mexico would help change the equation for companies such as Constellation. Fair competition could bring brewing jobs back to American communities, along with restoring demand for American barley and work for the glass and aluminum workers who supply our breweries.
TRUMP SHOULD TARIFF MEXICAN BEER TO HELP NEW YORK’S WORKERS AND FARMERS
Chavez-DeRemer resigned as Labor secretary last April amid an inspector general investigation, which ultimately found she violated department policy in several ways, including drinking at the office, directing staff to run personal errands, and other issues that raised questions about her ethics.
Ultimately, people who hold high-level jobs in the American government have a responsibility to maintain a level of trust after they leave those roles. But it’s these betrayals of the public trust by numerous members of the Trump administration that make me think that Democrats are going to win big in the midterm elections.
Ronnie Shows, a Democrat, represented Mississippi’s 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1999 to 2003.