United States Reaches Deal With Mexican Auto Parts Plant Over USMCA Labor Complaint

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 (Reuters) – Mexican auto parts company Tridonex on Tuesday agreed to guarantee workers’ rights, pay severance pay and wage arrears to laid-off workers to settle first rights complaint work under the new North American trade agreement.

The deal announced by the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and Tridonex’s parent company, Cardone Industries Inc, sought to resolve complaints that workers at the company were denied the rights to free association and collective bargaining.

The new “quick response” labor law enforcement mechanism was negotiated in the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) Trade Agreement in an attempt to strengthen unions and raise wages in Mexico to reduce incentives for companies to move jobs to the southern United States. frontier.

Philadelphia-based Cardone said he supports the voluntary plan of action in response to the complaint filed by the USTR after a petition from the labor organization AFL-CIO. Read more

“The agreement with Tridonex to provide severance pay, wage arrears and a commitment to neutrality in future union elections shows our determination to take advantage of the innovative application of the USMCA,” said the US representative. at Commerce Katherine Tai in a statement.

Tridonex has agreed to pay severance pay and six months of salary arrears, totaling a minimum of nine months salary per worker, to at least 154 people who the AFL-CIO says have been laid off from the factory. from Matamoros, a northern border town for trying to change posts. to a new union.

Wage arrears total over $ 600,000, an average of just under $ 4,000 per worker.

AFL-CIO trade specialist Eric Gottwald said it was a disappointment that the laid-off workers were not reinstated, but added that compensation is important to them and comes with it. a commitment to organize “an appropriate trade union election”.

“In our eyes, this is progress,” said Gottwald. “They were able to deliver something tangible … and in record time.”

The USMCA’s labor enforcement mechanism allows for a rapid review of rights complaints at individual factories and could result in restrictions on the importation of products from those factories.

Cardone said he was determined to implement measures to “further support workers’ rights” under Mexican labor law and the USCMA. Specifically, the company said it would provide workers with a printed copy of the collective agreement and work with Mexican authorities to ensure workers can vote freely on union issues.

Mexican labor lawyer Susana Prieto, who has backed Tridonex workers seeking to change unions, said the deal marked a “first step,” but warned it remained to be seen whether the Mexican government would monitor changes agreed to in the factory.

Mexico’s Ministry of Labor did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Officials have previously said they have accepted the United States’ request to determine whether Tridonex workers have been denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

General Motors Co (GM.N) has also come under scrutiny in Mexico after the USTR filed a USMCA complaint in May against a pickup truck factory in the state of Guanajuato for possible rights violations during a vote on a collective agreement. The resumption of the disputed vote at the plant will take place on August 17 and 18.

Reporting by David Shepardson and David Lawder; Daina Beth Solomon in Mexico City; Editing by David Gregorio, Chris Reese and Grant McCool

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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