U.S. unions lodge first Mexico labour grievance

MEXICO CITY • The AFLCIO, the biggest U.S. labour federation, on Monday filed the first petition for the U.S. government to bring a labour complaint against Mexico under the trade deal that replaced the North American Free-trade Agreement, the union said.

The AFL-CIO’S petition, which it shared with Reuters, states that workers at the auto parts plant Tridonex in Matamoros, a Mexican city on the border with Texas, were denied independent union representation in violation of the United States-mexico-canada Agreement (USMCA) that replaced NAFTA last year.

Since the 1994 NAFTA, which had few enforcement tools for labour rules, wages in Mexico have stagnated and now rank as the lowest in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a club of 37 industrialized nations.

The USMCA was designed to change that by giving more power to workers to demand better salaries, which was also meant to prevent low labour costs from leeching more U.S. jobs.

Reuters reported last week that hundreds of workers had sought to be represented by a new union led by activist-attorney Susana Prieto since 2019, yet state labour officials never scheduled an election. Prieto said 600 of her supporters at Tridonex last year were fired, in what some workers described as retaliation for their efforts to switch unions.

Tridonex’s parent is Philadelphia-based Cardone Industries, which is controlled by Canadian company

Brookfield Asset Management.

Under USMCA’S Rapid Response Mechanism, firms in Mexico and the United States can face tariffs and other penalties for failing to ensure worker rights, such as freedom of association.

The AFL-CIO’S petition marks the first time the trade deal’s labour enforcement is being put to use, and will be closely watched by companies and labour activists.

“This is precedent-setting,” said Cathy Feingold, director of the international department of the AFL-CIO, which lobbied for better worker rights provisions in the USMCA. “It’s going to be a test for this new system.”

The AFL-CIO sent its petition to the U.S. Office of Trade and Labor Affairs, which has 30 days to review the claim and determine whether to bring the case to the Mexican government for further review.

Mexican labour officials would then work with U.S. counterparts to agree on terms of remediation. The entire process, including a final stage to determine potential sanctions and penalty fees, must be resolved within five months.

“Most of this could get fixed pretty quickly if the political will is there,” said Benjamin Davis, director of international affairs for the United Steelworkers, part of the AFL-CIO.