accumulated NAFTA trade deficit would translate into over three hundred thousand U.S. jobs lost. A number of companies that specifically promised to create new jobs actually laid workers off because of the agreement. Allied Signal, General Electric, Mattel, Proctor and Gamble, Scott Paper and Zenith all made specific promises to create jobs, and all have laid off workers because of NAFTA as certified by the U.S. Department of Labor's special NAFTA unemployment assistance program (NAFTA TAA). As of mid-August 1995, the U.S. Department of Labor has certified 38,148 workers as having lost their jobs to NAFTA. A total of 68,482 U.S. workers have filed to receive NAFTA-related unemployment assistance through the NAFTA-TAA program. Despite the job losses, trade officials said NAFTA remains a net gainer for U.S. workers. Increased exports to Mexico and Canada will support some 3 million U.S. jobs this year, up some 500,000 from two years ago, according to the U.S. Trade Representative's office. (Briones) III. Recent Events A. The Chiapas Uprising and the Zapatistas On January 1, 1994, a group of Native Americans called the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) captured four towns in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas and demanded reforms from the Salinas government for better treatment for poor Indians there. They chose to begin their rebellion to coincide with the implementation of NAFTA because they consider it a "death sentence." They demand bilingual and intercultural education in their indigenous language as well as in Spanish. They want titles and protection of the lands where they live. Finally, they say that the governments should ratify the International Labor Office's (ILO) resolution 169 on the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous people. The group is named for Emiliano Zapata, a 19th-century Mexican revolutionary leader and a...
