The United States recently asked Mexico to review if Teksid Hierro de México facility workers in Frontera, Coahuila, are being denied the rights of free association and collective bargaining.
According to a June 6 Department of Labor news release, the announcement was made by Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
“The U.S. Department of Labor will continue working with our trade partners and the private sector to secure freedom of association and collective bargaining rights, which are foundations of our worker-centered trade agenda,” Walsh said in the release.
“We continue to use the USMCA’s Rapid Response Labor Mechanism to defend workers’ rights and remain committed to working closely with the Mexican government to do so,” Tai said, according to the release. “When our trade policy helps to ensure that workers in all countries can exercise their rights, it helps drive a race to the top.”
The recent request by Walsh and Tai is the fourth time the U.S. has made such a request to Mexico.
“As we have done with other Rapid Response Labor Mechanism cases, we look forward to collaborating with the government of Mexico to ensure that workers can choose their union representatives freely and without interference,” Walsh said in the release.
USMCA’s Labor Chapter holds a bilateral annex which requires Mexico to have specific laws in place for recognizing the right to collective bargaining. This is the same vital provisions of Mexico’s labor law reform of 2019, according to the release.
The release reports the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism gives fast collective bargaining enforcement and free association.
Additionally, Tai has ordered the secretary of the Treasury to halt all unliquidated entries of goods that come from the Teksid Hierro facility, per the release.
