Mexico sent a letter to the United States to formally initiate negotiations to resolve a US complaint about a disputed labor contract vote at a General Motors plant, officials said.
The workers had voted in April on whether to keep their current contract but, midway through, the officials detected “serious irregularities”, such as destroyed ballots, and discarded the vote.
The findings led the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to make the first request for a review of possible labor violations under the T-MEC.
The Labor Secretariat said last week that the plant’s union, which employs some 6,000 people in the central city of Silao, must take a new vote before August 20 or it will lose the contract altogether.
The letter to the United States, which marks the next step in the TMEC’s formal complaint process, reiterated those terms, the Labor Secretary told Reuters. The Ministry of Economy confirmed that the letter had been sent.
He also claimed that the goal is to ensure that the majority of GM Silao plant workers can vote freely and without intimidation, said the Ministry of Labor, which declined to share the original letter.
Both the United States and Mexico governments will have at least 10 days to agree on a plan to resolve the differences.
Workers’ compensation under the TMEC includes revoking duty-free access for goods from the offending factory.
In GM’s case, that could mean putting a 25% U.S. pickup truck import duty on trucks made at Silao, a move that could add thousands of dollars to the cost of each vehicle.
Mexico seeks to improve voting after dispute at GM plant
In an effort to prevent a similar scenario from recurring, Mexico is looking to give inspectors more power to monitor the election, as part of several changes that are being considered amid pressure from the administration of US President Joe Biden on the Latin American country.
“Without a doubt, the experience we had in the case of General Motors Silao demonstrated the need to continue strengthening this instrument, and accompany it with others,” said Esteban Martínez, a Mexican official from the Ministry of Labor, during a virtual panel with officials from trade and labor of the United States and Canada.
Mexico’s Labor Secretariat said it also plans to allow inspectors to not only be able to observe the vote silently, but also to “take a proactive role,” including suspending the process if they detect irregularities or potentially illegal acts.
In addition, a requirement is being established so that the results are valid only if the majority of the workers go to the polls, Martínez explained. He added that some unions may choose not to vote and let their collective contracts expire when they anticipate they will not have enough support.
