ONE YEAR AFTER THE IMPLEMENTATION of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Morristown, New Jersey-based Allied-Signal has earned the dubious distinction of being the company charged with the most NAFTA-related layoffs, according to a May 1995 report by the Citizens Trade Campaign (CTC).

In 1993, Allied-Signal Chair and Chief Executive Officer Lawrence Bossidy led USA*NAFTA, the corporate-funded lobby for NAFTA. Bossidy predicted NAFTA would create a net increase in U.S. jobs and denied any suggestion that the agreement would provide incentives for his own company to move jobs to Mexico . On CNN痴 "Moneyline," on August 23, 1993, responding to whether or not he felt NAFTA would result in jobs moving to Mexico, Bossidy said, "I think the jobs that were to move to Mexico have already moved there. I mean, there[池e] more than 700,000 employees in the Mexican maquiladoras now!"

As a result of Allied-Signal shifting jobs to Mexico, CTC reports workers in five U.S. cities have petitioned for NAFTA Transitional Adjustment Assistance, the retraining program set up to help U.S. workers who lose their jobs as a result of NAFTA. In February 1995, the U.S. Department of Labor determined the 170 Allied-Signal workers were layed off because the company shifted production from its Greenville, Ohio plant to Moneterrey, Mexico. Wages at Allied-Signal痴 Monterrey plant had dropped from $1.30 to 82 cents an hour in January following the peso crisis. In 1994, workers applied for adjustment assistance following layoffs at Allied-Signal plants in El Paso, Texas; Eatontown, New Jersey; Danville, Illinois; and Orangeburg, South Carolina.

"The Allied-Signal case clearly illustrates who the winners and losers are under NAFTA," says Sarah Anderson, one of the report痴 authors. "Mexican workers� wages have plummetted while the company痴 CEOs took home some of the highest salaries in the country."

Allied-Signal did not return calls from Multinational Monitor.