WASHINGTON – The Office of the United States Trade Representative has invoked the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism (RRM) in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to review whether workers at Alimentos Grole, S.A. de C.V. (Alimentos Grole), located in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico, are being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. The United States has suspended liquidation of unliquidated entries of goods from the Alimentos Grole facility, which processes pork and chicken products.
Background
The United States Trade Representative and the Secretary of Labor co-chair the Interagency Labor Committee for Monitoring and Enforcement (ILC). On July 29, 2025, the ILC received an RRM petition from a group of former and current Alimentos Grole workers affiliated with Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Industria Alimentaria, Mantenimiento Industrial, Similares y Conexos del Estado de Sonora (SITIES), a Mexican labor union. The petition alleges that Alimentos Grole has violated workers’ rights by threatening and dismissing workers to discourage union activity and by forming and promoting a company-aligned internal union. The ILC reviews RRM petitions that it receives, and the accompanying information, within 30 days.
After conducting this review, the ILC determined that there is sufficient, credible evidence of a denial of rights enabling the good faith invocation of enforcement mechanisms. As a result, the United States Trade Representative has submitted a request to Mexico that Mexico review whether workers at Alimentos Grole are being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. Mexico has 10 days to agree to conduct a review and, if it agrees, 45 days from today to complete the review.
A copy of the request for review can be found here.
A copy of the letter to the Secretary of the Treasury can be found here.
Information about previous requests can be found here.
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