The Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (USMCA) has a structural error that led companies established in the national territory to suffer abuse from the United States government; it is urgent to change this in the review that will take place in 2026.
Businessmen, lawyers and unionists consulted by EL UNIVERSAL agree on this; they pointed out that in the more than four years that the USMCA has been in force, the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism was activated against 29 companies established in the country and in one case it caused the closing of the Manufacturas VU plant in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, while others were related to the conflicts between unions to gain slots.
During the last six-year term, Raquel Buenrostro, who was the Secretary of Economy at that time, requested from her counterpart, Katherine Tai, to make “reasonable and good faith use” of the USMCA labor mechanism and to activate it only as “a last resort”.
However, for the current Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare, Marath Bolaños, “the mechanism has been clear” and he added that “the mechanism has made good progress, so it is not specifically identified as a complication in the dialogue.”
This dispute resolution tool was included in the USMCA and can only be used by the governments of the US and Canada if workers or unions in Mexico complain that factories fail to comply with laws on free association and collective bargaining.
The president of the Employers’ Confederation of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex), José Medina Mora, said that the labor mechanism “has to be equal for all parties, because we accepted conditions to submit to that review, but without the United States or Canada being subject to it.”
The national director of the Committee on International Agreements and Treaties of the National Council of the Maquiladora and Manufacturing Export Industry (Index), Israel Morales, agreed that “the mechanism is highly loaded in favor of the United States and Canada.”
“The mechanism has a structural flaw. There is no place in the world in which it is fair that if you run a red light I am the one to get a fine, and this is what the mechanism does, given that if the union does not drive and ensure union freedom for its workers and they fall into bad practices, the company is the one that gets punished and, therefore, it is necessary to make adjustments to the tool”, he told El Gran Diario de México.
They use the tool for another purpose
Óscar de la Vega, partner at the De la Vega & Martínez Rojas Law Firm, pointed out that “the US government abuses this labor mechanism in order to cast doubt on companies for violations in matters other than free association and collective bargaining.”
Salvador Pasquel-Villegas, member of the North American Employment and Compensation Practice Group at Baker McKenzie agreed that “the labor mechanism has begun to be exceeded or abused”, as this tool resolved issues relating to free union association and the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements, but the United States activates this scheme for other causes and Mexico accepts this.
Since the USMCA entered into force in July 2020, “we have complaints in which a union alliance, without having anything to do with the collective relationship of a company’s workers, and without representing anyone, files a complaint because they say that workers were dismissed because of union activities.”
“It is a matter in which three countries are partners and, therefore, we should have an even playing field”, as the mechanism only allows the United States and Canada to denounce violations against companies in Mexico, Pasquel-Villegas added.
“We now speak about labor mechanisms in which everything is resolved by paying bigger compensations to the dismissed workers, with reinstatements. Additionally, most procedures end with the commitment letter.”
In his opinion, the USMCA review in 2026 can be used to adjust this scheme so that unions that prevent workers from deciding which union to join can be denounced.
Tereso Medina, leader of the Coahuila Union Federation, said that Mexican unions file their complaints with Americans because, in many cases “it entails manipulating workers.”
“The mechanism must not be used as a form of blackmail or manipulation, but there are certain union schools of thought that have gotten used to use this tool to gain followers”, said the also Pirelli union leader.
Medina recalled that Manufacturas VU underwent a labor mechanism in 2022 and underwent another one in 2023.
“When it decided to close the Coahuila plant it was because the mechanism was abused and the company was not competitive, and it left over 350 workers without employment.”
