The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement's Interagency Labor Committee for Monitoring and Enforcement has requested that Mexico review an alleged denial of labor rights at Hulera Tornel S.A. de C.V.'s tire manufacturing facilities in Mexico City and Tultitlán. This request follows a petition filed on December 9, 2024, by the labor union Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Compañía Hulera Tornel.

The petition, submitted under the USMCA’s Rapid Response Labor Mechanism, claims that Hulera Tornel did not adhere to a sector-wide agreement in the rubber industry. Instead, it allegedly negotiated individual agreements offering lower benefits related to work hours, holidays, vacation pay, savings fund contributions, Christmas bonuses, social welfare funds, and social security contributions.

After finding sufficient evidence supporting these allegations, the U.S. government asked Mexico to review the situation. Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs Thea Lee stated: “Every Mexican worker in the rubber industry deserves the full benefits negotiated in the sector-wide agreement. Any company attempting to skirt providing these benefits is violating Mexican labor law and the provisions of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.”

Ambassador Katherine Tai added: “This marks the third Rapid Response Mechanism case under Mexico’s sector-wide agreement for the rubber industry... The Biden-Harris Administration remains deeply committed to working with the Mexican government to ensure that workers at this facility – and across the rubber sector – are treated with dignity and fairness.”

Mexico has ten days to decide whether to conduct a review and 45 days to investigate and report its findings.

Hulera Tornel S.A. de C.V., which exports tires for various vehicles including industrial and passenger types to the U.S., employs over 1,600 workers across its two plants with 1,070 being unionized.