Mexico, U.S. close VU Manufacturing complaint in fifth USMCA labor probe

Flags of Mexico, United States and Canada are pictured at a safety sales space at Zaragoza-Ysleta border crossing bridge, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico January 16, 2020. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

MEXICO CITY, Sept 14 (Reuters) – Mexico and the USA have resolved the most recent in a sequence of labor complaints underneath a regional commerce pact, saying on Wednesday that employees at auto-parts plant VU Manufacturing in northern Mexico had been capable of elect the union of their alternative.

U.S. officers in July referred to as for a probe underneath the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Settlement (USMCA), the fifth such case aiming to enhance office situations in Mexico, after activists alleged the corporate interfered in employees’ efforts to pick out their union. learn extra

Michigan-based VU Manufacturing, whose manufacturing unit within the Mexican border metropolis of Piedras Negras produces inside automotive elements together with arm-rests and door upholstery, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

U.S. labor officers mentioned the Mexican authorities educated employees and educated administration to make sure a good union election on Aug. 31, together with asking the corporate to problem a press release vowing to remain impartial.

The Mexican authorities additionally requested vote observers from Mexico’s electoral institute and the United Nations-backed Worldwide Labor Group.

Staff in the end elected an unbiased union, La Liga Sindical Obrera Mexicana, which is able to negotiate the plant’s first collective contract, overlaying some 400 individuals.

“Staff at Manufacturas VU Auto Elements facility now have a union – chosen via a good election – with whom they’re consulting as they put together for negotiations,” U.S. Labor Minister Marty Walsh mentioned in a press release.

Their rights to free affiliation and collective bargaining had beforehand been denied, the assertion added.

Mexico’s financial system and labor ministries mentioned the peaceable vote ensured employees might elect the group they believed would greatest symbolize their pursuits, and officers would proceed monitoring employee rights on the manufacturing unit.

Earlier USMCA labor complaints led to probes at Mexican crops owned by corporations together with carmakers Common Motors and Stellantis.

Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; Modifying by Anthony Esposito, Jonathan Oatis and Josie Kao

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