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    U.S. asks Mexico to review a second complaint about labor violations in its auto industry.

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    The Biden administration is invoking provisions in a new trade agreement to ask Mexico to look into accusations of labor violations at an auto-parts plant near the U.S. border.The action, announced Wednesday by the Labor Department and the Office of the United States Trade Representative, follows a complaint by groups including the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the nation’s largest federation of unions, that workers were being denied the rights of free association and collective bargaining.The A.F.L.-C.I.O. said workers at the Tridonex plant in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, had been harassed and fired over their efforts to organize with an independent union in place of one controlled by the company. Tridonex is owned by Cardone Industries, an aftermarket auto-parts manufacturer based in Philadelphia.It is the second time that the United States has sought Mexican review of a labor rights matter under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which took effect last summer. The accord has a “rapid response” mechanism that provides for complaints to be brought against and for penalties to be applied to an individual factory.“This announcement demonstrates our commitment to using the tools in the agreement to stand up for workers at home and abroad,” Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative, said in a statement, noting that Mexico has 10 days to agree to conduct a review and, if it agrees, 45 days to remedy the situation.Last month the United States asked Mexico to review whether labor violations had occurred at a General Motors plant in the central state of Guanajuato in connection with a recent vote on a collective bargaining agreement. Mexico agreed to the request the same day. More

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    U.S. Asks Mexico to Investigate Labor Issues at G.M. Facility

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    The administration learned of what appeared to be “serious violations” of labor rights, it said, and is using a new tool in the North American trade deal to seek a review.WASHINGTON — The Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it was asking Mexico to review whether labor violations had occurred at a General Motors facility in the country, a significant step using a new labor enforcement tool in the revised North American trade deal.The administration is seeking the review under the novel “rapid response” mechanism in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement and took effect last summer. Under the mechanism, penalties can be brought against a specific factory for violating workers’ rights of free association and collective bargaining.The administration “received information appearing to indicate serious violations” of workers’ rights at the G.M. facility, in Silao in the central state of Guanajuato, in connection with a recent vote on their collective-bargaining agreement, the Office of the United States Trade Representative said.The vote was stopped last month amid accusations that the union at the facility had tampered with it, according to news reports. Mexico’s Labor Ministry said on Tuesday that it had found “serious irregularities” in the vote and ordered that it be held again within 30 days.The updated North American trade agreement required Mexico to revamp its labor system, and the country overhauled its labor laws in 2019. Sham collective-bargaining agreements known as protection contracts, which are reached with employer-dominated unions, are widespread in the country. Now unions are holding votes to affirm the existing agreements.G.M. said it would cooperate with Mexico’s Labor Ministry and the U.S. government.Henry Romero/ReutersIn a statement, Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative, said the announcement on Wednesday “shows the Biden-Harris administration’s serious commitment to workers and a worker-centered trade policy.”“Using U.S.M.C.A. to help protect freedom of association and collective-bargaining rights in Mexico helps workers both at home and in Mexico, by stopping a race to the bottom,” she said, using the initials for the trade deal. “It also supports Mexico’s efforts to implement its recent labor law reforms.”In a statement, General Motors said that it believed it had no role in the alleged labor violations and that it had asked a third-party firm to review the matter. The company, which makes Chevrolet Silverado, Chevrolet Cheyenne and GMC Sierra pickup trucks at the Silao facility, said it would cooperate with Mexico’s Labor Ministry and the U.S. government.“General Motors respects and supports the rights of our employees to make a personal choice about union representation and any collective bargaining on their behalf,” the statement said. “G.M. condemns violations of labor rights and actions to restrict collective bargaining.”In announcing its request for a review by Mexico, the Biden administration avoided striking an adversarial tone with the Mexican government.Ms. Tai praised the government “for stepping in to suspend the vote when it became aware of voting irregularities,” adding, “Today’s action will complement Mexico’s efforts to ensure that these workers can fully exercise their collective-bargaining rights.”On Monday, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and other groups filed a complaint under the rapid response mechanism in which they alleged labor violations at the Tridonex auto parts plants in the Mexican city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas.The Biden administration will review that complaint, an official in the trade representative’s office said. It could then ask Mexico to conduct a review of that matter akin to the one it is seeking of the G.M. facility.Oscar Lopez More

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    Complaint Accuses Mexican Factories of Labor Abuses, Testing New Trade Pact

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    The A.F.L.-C.I.O. and other groups are seeking to make use of a new enforcement mechanism in the updated North American trade deal.WASHINGTON — The A.F.L.-C.I.O. and other groups plan on Monday to file a complaint with the Biden administration over claims of labor violations at a group of auto parts factories in Mexico, a move that will pose an early test of the new North American trade deal and its labor protections. More

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    Panel Finds ‘Serious Concerns’ With Mexican Labor Reforms

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    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyPanel Finds ‘Serious Concerns’ With Mexican Labor ReformsA new report examining Mexican labor reforms required under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement highlights one of the biggest trade challenges for the incoming Biden administration.Susana Prieto Terrazas, center, in coveralls, is among the labor activists who have faced arrest for challenging the Mexican labor system.Credit…Jose Luis Gonzalez/ReutersDec. 15, 2020Updated 2:23 p.m. ETLeer en españolWASHINGTON — Mexico has made progress in putting in place the sweeping overhauls to its labor system required by the new trade agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada, but serious challenges still remain, according to a new report by an independent board set up to evaluate those changes.The report, the first to be issued by the Independent Mexico Labor Expert Board, highlights one of the foremost trade challenges for the incoming Biden administration: ensuring that the goals of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which went into effect this year, are realized.The trade pact, which replaced the quarter-century-old North American Free Trade Agreement, sought to improve labor conditions and pay for Mexican workers, as way to prevent companies from undercutting American and Canadian workers by moving their factories to Mexico. Among other changes, the agreement called for sweeping overhauls to Mexico’s laws and institutions to make its unions more democratic, and set up independent bodies like labor courts to enforce those changes.Ben Davis, the director of international affairs at the United Steelworkers and the chairman of the independent board, said it “remains to be seen if Mexico’s labor reforms will allow its workers to escape the poverty wages that have done so much damage to them, and — through unfair competition — to workers in the U.S.”Michael Wessel, a labor adviser to the United States trade representative who helped to create the board, said the Biden administration’s efforts would be crucial in determining whether U.S.M.C.A. was ultimately deemed a success.“The incoming Biden administration must devote considerable time and energy to making U.S.M.C.A. work,” he said. “Support for new trade agreements will depend, in part, on how successful the changes in the U.S.C.M.A. are in advancing the rights of workers and achieving identifiable and significant change.”The changes are an attempt to address what politicians on both the right and left see as one of NAFTA’s main failings: its role in encouraging factory owners to move their operations to Mexico.When NAFTA was introduced in the 1990s, economists and politicians argued that it would be a powerful force for raising wages for workers in Mexico, putting the Mexican economy on a more even and secure footing with the rest of North America. But since the agreement went into effect in 1994, Mexico’s less-skilled workers have experienced limited wage gains.Progressive Democrats in the United States contend that this lackluster performance stemmed in part from a deep corruption of the Mexican labor system. In particular, they have blamed “protection contracts,” or fake collective bargaining agreements made by unions that are company controlled, without the input of workers. These agreements lock in low wages and poor working conditions, and could make up as many as three-quarters of collective bargaining agreements in Mexico, according to the report.Workers and activists who challenge this system can face harassment, arrest and violence, the report says. American labor advocates have recently pointed to the case of Susana Prieto Terrazas, a Mexican labor activist who was arrested on charges of trying to organize workers in the state of Tamaulipas in June, shortly before the new trade pact took effect.As part of a labor law passed last year, Mexico is setting up independent labor courts and monitors, and trying to recertify hundreds of thousands of collective bargaining agreements between companies and their employees by secret votes before May 1, 2023, among other provisions.In its first report, the board commended the Mexican government for continuing its efforts to expand labor rights despite the scale of the undertaking and the complications of the coronavirus pandemic. However, it identified “a number of serious concerns” with the enforcement of Mexico’s new labor law that it said must be promptly addressed.It said that most unionized workers were not yet able to democratically elect their leaders; that the old system of protection contracts remains intact; and that workers who have tried to challenge these conditions have been fired, jailed or killed.The report adds that the pace of approval of new collective bargaining agreements is far behind where it should be, and that the process of setting up independent courts and monitors has been hampered by missed deadlines and a lack of resources. It also calls for more funding to help Mexicans set up independent unions and to build the capacity of Mexican labor inspectors to enforce the new labor rules.“Many of the changes promised to improve the lives of workers, in terms of union democracy, freedom of association and collective bargaining, remain to be implemented,” the report concludes.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More