First Course of Remediation under the USMCA Rapid Response Labor Mechanism
Washington and Mexico City – The United States and Mexico today announced a course of remediation which seeks to provide the workers of the General Motors facility in Silao, Mexico with the ability to vote on whether to approve their collective bargaining agreement in free and democratic conditions, and to remediate the denial of the right of free association and collective bargaining to workers at the facility. This first course of remediation under United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s novel Rapid Response Labor Mechanism reflects the shared intent of the United States and Mexico that trade benefit workers.
Today’s action follows the request for review under the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism which the United States sent to Mexico on May 12, 2021 in response to concerns arising from events preceding, during, and surrounding an April 2021 legitimization vote of a collective bargaining agreement for workers at the facility. Mexico conducted a review in response to the request, and on June 25 commenced discussions on a remediation plan. The course of remediation builds on steps already being taken by the Mexican government. As part of the course of remediation, Mexico will, among other items:
• ensure that a new legitimization vote is held at the facility by August 20, 2021;
• have federal inspectors from the Secretariat of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) present at the facility starting this week, to prevent and address any intimidation and coercion occurring;
• permit, at and before the new legitimization vote, a robust presence of impartial international observers from the International Labor Organization to be at the facility, and permit domestic observers from a Mexican autonomous institution to be at the vote;
• distribute accurate workers’ rights information at the facility;
• investigate and, as appropriate, sanction anyone responsible for the conduct that led to the suspension of the April vote and any other violation of law related to that vote that occurred before the vote, at the vote, after the vote, or in connection with the August vote; and
• monitor an email address and create and staff a hotline phone number with STPS officials to receive and respond to complaints from workers about the voting process.
The course of remediation is the result of the commitment of the U.S. and Mexican Governments to workers’ rights and represents a success for the workers in the facility.
The course of remediation’s end date is September 20, 2021.
Read the full course of remediation here.
Unofficial Spanish courtesy translation here.
###
