Mexico is fast replacing Asian textile and clothing suppliers in the United States. There is a mushrooming growth of garment factories in Mexico recently. The US has asked Mexican authorities to probe the violation of human rights at one denim factory.
The U.S. asked Mexico to review whether workers at an ‘Industrias del Interior’, a denim garment facility in the state of Aguascalientes are being denied the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. Pending the probe the U.S. will suspend the final settlement of customs accounts related to entries of goods from this facility.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative revealed it is the tenth time the U.S. has formally invoked the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement but the first time it has done so in the garment sector. All previous requests concerned the automotive sector.
USTR states that the Interagency Labor Committee for Monitoring and Enforcement, which comprises USTR and the Department of Labor, received a petition alleging that the Mexican company has coerced workers into accepting its proposed collective bargaining agreement revisions, intervened in the internal affairs of the union representing workers at the facility in question, and failed to bargain in good faith with that union. The ILC subsequently determined that there is sufficient, credible evidence of a denial of rights enabling the good faith invocation of enforcement mechanisms.
Mexico has ten days to agree to conduct a review. After that, it will have to complete the review in 45 days.
US government asks Mexico to probe labor rights violation in Denim factory
