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 the Latex Occidental, S.A. de C.V. (Latex Occidental) facility located in the city of Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco, 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 Latex Occidental facility, which manufactures latex balloons.
Background
The United States Trade Representative and the Secretary of Labor co-chair the Interagency Labor Committee for Monitoring and Enforcement (ILC). On March 16, 2026, the ILC received an RRM petition from the Secretary General of the Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de Látex Occidental, S.A. de C.V. The petition alleges that Latex Occidental is violating workers’ freedom of association and collective bargaining rights by unlawfully changing their union representation and collective bargaining agreement as part of the improper transfer of workers to an affiliated company. The petition also alleges that Latex Occidental dismissed workers because of their union activity. 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 Latex Occidental 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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