A Mexican union said Tuesday it will file a labor complaint with the United States over alleged violations of workers’ rights at a BBB Industries auto parts plant in northern Mexico, the latest effort to take advantage of the terms of a regional trade agreement.
US authorities have presented what has upset sectors of the Mexican government, which has complained that the mechanism is being applied before the states have time to implement labor reforms.
Under the North American trade agreement, TMEC, launched in 2020 and which has stricter labor rights standards than its predecessor, NAFTA, activists have increasingly denounced alleged misconduct related to union representation, in through demands for wage increases.
In a petition to US labor officials, the Mexican union organization SNITIS said workers were intimidated and threatened, among other irregularities, by employees of BBB Industries in Reynosa, which borders the United States, during a labor contract vote last month. .
BBB, an Alabama-based private company that refurbishes auto parts, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
These votes by union members are mandatory under a labor reform on which the TMEC is based and seek to end the once widespread practice of reaching agreements between companies and unions favorable to business workers’ backs.
The petition pointed out several procedural flaws: The vote count exceeded the number of workers, the ballots were not numbered, there were no neutral observers, the workers did not receive copies of their contract until the day of the vote.
The workers also alleged that company representatives inside the plant and on the production lines pressured them to vote in favor of the contract at the risk of losing their benefits, a type of intimidation tactic that has long been prevalent in the factories. Mexican work.
The CTM, a powerful union that holds the BBB contract and many others in Mexico’s auto sector, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
