MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican officials said on Saturday they would look into alleged worker rights violations at the Tridonex autoparts factory in northern Mexico, after the U.S. government requested a review under the terms of a new trade pact.
The complaint from the U.S. Trade Representative’s office (USTR) last week marked the second time the United States has flagged potential labor abuses in Mexico under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which replaced NAFTA.
Mexican officials said they have accepted the U.S. request for a review of Tridonex in the border city of Matamoros to determine if workers had the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining.
“The Economy Ministry, in coordination with the Labor Ministry and other involved parties, will review the case to determine with legal elements and facts if there exists or not a denial of the referenced labor rights,” the ministries said in a statement.
Mexican authorities have until July 24 to submit their findings to U.S. counterparts, the statement added.
Cardone Industries Inc, the Philadelphia-based parent company of Tridonex, has said that the allegations are inaccurate and that it respects worker rights.
General Motors Co has also come under scrutiny in Mexico after the USTR in May filed a USMCA complaint against the company’s pickup truck plant in Guanajuato state over possible rights abuses during a union contract vote.
(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; editing by Diane Craft)
