Union Magazines' Coverage of the NAFTA Controversy Before Congressional Approval ERIC FREEDMAN Michigan State University, East Lansing MI 48824 Congressional consideration of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA ) in 1993 drew intense labor lobbying. Unions acted to motivate members to contact their representatives and senators, including use of their magazines as advocacy and informational tools. Union magazines, which are little-studied but potentially influ- ential advocacy tools, attacked the pact and urged readers to take political action. Their coverage focused on job-related critiques, especially predictions of a job drain to Mexico and lower wages for U.S. workers. Much less attention went to environ- mental and other perceived flaws of NAFTA. Language in those articles was frequently more heated than in the mainstream media. I. Introduction Organized labor in the U.S. and Canada vigorously but unsuccessfully fought approval of the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement by the Canadian Parliament and the U.S. Congress. U.S. unions used their magazines to inform members about what they considered serious flaws in the pact and to motivate readers to oppose it in com- munications with their congressional delegations, rallies, letters to newspaper editors, and other public actions. Coverage focused principally on job-related critiques of the pact, especially predictions of a job drain to Mexico and potentially lower wages for U.S. workers. A content analysis and a review of four major union magazines with a combined multimillion circulation show that other issues that resonated strongly among the gen- eral public -- particularly environmental -- received substantially less space in the labor press. Articles intended for Canadian members included another issue: nation- alism and national autonomy. Those magazines were published by the United Auto Workers (Solidarity, circulation 1.3 million), International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (The Machinist, circulation 600,000; now IAM Journal), United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCWAction, circulation 1.4 million; now Working America) and United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America (Carpenter, cir- culation 500,000). 1 These four private-sector unions represent primarily blue-collar manufacturing, service, and construction trades workers and, at the time, were among the 12 largest AFL-CIO unions. JOURNAL OF LABOR RESEARCH Volume XXV, Number 2 Spring 2004