United States Tells Mexico to Probe Alleged Labour Rights Violations at Stellantis Auto-Parts Plant
The U.S. has requested that Mexico should look into the alleged worker rights violations at a Mexican auto-parts plant. This investigation of the auto-parts plant owned by an Italian-French carmaker Stellantis, will be the fourth of such to take place under a revised trade deal.
Mexico was also asked by the U.S to probe into likely rights violations at Teksid Hierro de Mexico which is located in the northern border state of Coahuila.
This falls under the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The goal of the USMCA is to make Mexican workplaces have better working conditions.
Various companies have been observing these occurrences with rapt attention so as to gauge how the labor rules will pan out under this trade part that has taken the place of NAFTA.
Factories under the umbrella of USMCA that abuse worker’ rights stand the risk of losing their tariff-free status on exports.
The world’s fourth-largest auto group, Stellantis, did not respond to request for comment right away. However, they had earlier stated that they respect and hold in high regard collective-bargaining rights.
Teksid which makes iron castings for heavy vehicles and has in their employ about 1,500 persons has been in a union disagreement since 2014.
The workers claim that this dispute has prevented them from having representation by the Miners Union and has resulted in employee dismissals.
According to the the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, the AFL-CIO labor federation and the UAW representing U.S. Stellantis workers, as well as Mexico’s Miners Union, pointed out the possible workers’ rights violations.
Marty Walsh, the U.S. Labor Secretary stated that the U.S. government has the goal of working hand in hand with Mexican counterparts and Teksid to make sure that workers are free to select their union representatives without any sort of interference.
Mexico’s Economy Ministry did not comment on this right away.
Stellantis which was created from the merger of Peugeot maker PSA and Fiat Chrysler, operates seven more plants in Mexico. Last year alone, Stellantis manufactured more than 400,000 cars in the country.
Labor inquiries have also been opened by U.S. officials regarding Japanese conglomerate Panasonic, U.S. automaker General Motors, and U.S. owned factory Tridonex.
