Labor complaint filed against firm in Mexico
Action against auto parts supplier is first under US-Mexico-Canada pact
WASHINGTON — Labor groups submitted the first complaint of a labor violation under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on Monday, against an auto parts supplier in Mexico, posing an early test of the new trade deal’s labor provisions.
The complaint was filed by the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union, Mexican autoworkers union SNITIS and left-leaning consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen against Tridonex, an auto parts factory based in Matamoros, Mexico, near the southern tip of Texas.
It’s the first such complaint under the USMCA, which went into effect last summer and replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement, which both former President Donald Trump and such progressives as Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont argued pushed manufacturing jobs out of Michigan and other Rust Belt states, and into Mexico.
Tridonex workers have been attempting to form a SNITIS union for two years, but more than 600 have been “harassed and fired” for their efforts, the unions said in a press release. The SNITIS union would replace a company-controlled union that isn’t elected by workers.
“USMCA requires Mexico to end the reign of protection unions and their corrupt deals with employers,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in the joint statement, which also included Susana Prieto, a Mexican labor lawyer who was arrested during union organizing last year. “The ongoing harassment of Susana Prieto and SNITIS
members is a textbook violation of the labor laws Mexico has pledged to uphold.”
Mexico enacted new labor laws as a part of the USMCA, which was negotiated under the Trump administration, but was partially brokered in Congress by both Republicans and Democrats, who pushed for stronger labor provisions, including the “rapid response mechanism” the unions are using to file the complaint. Policymakers hoped to stop companies from moving factories to Mexico in part by raising wages and working conditions for Mexican workers.
The rapid response provision allows for labor complaints against individual factories. If the company is found to have violated workers’ rights, the U.S. can ask Mexico to review the allegations. Eventually, the facility could face penalties or the company’s products could be barred from entering the U.S.
Tridonex is a Philadelphia-based subsidiary of Cardone Industries Inc. that supplies auto parts to companies in the U.S. and elsewhere. Cardone did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Detroit News.
The complaint will be a test of the labor provisions in the new agreement, and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai has said that enforcement will be a priority and that there are concerns with Mexico’s adherence to the agreement.