Workers at the General Motors plant in Silao, Mexico, have rejected the collective agreement negotiated by the Miguel Trujillo Lopez union - part of the Confederation of Mexican Workers union, which has been accused of intimidation tactics in previous votes. On 17 and 18 August a majority voted to reject their collective agreement during a consultation that was supervised by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Mexican National Electoral Institute in order to ensure there were no irregularities. This ballot was made possible by new provisions within the United States–Mexico–Canada Free Trade Agreement (USMCA). The election of a new representative trade union body is expected to be held soon.
Intended to protect worker’s freedom of association rights and the their right to engage in collective bargaining, the USMCA includes a ‘rapid response mechanism’ when representatives of any of the three signatory countries believes that irregularities have occurred in the framework. It was thus following a request made by the Biden administration to its Mexican counterpart to investigate allegations of ‘serious violations’ of labour laws at the General Motors auto plant in Silao, Guanajuato (c
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