The United States government made the 23rd request under the USMCA's Rapid Response Labor Mechanism to the Mexican government for a review into the alleged denial of labor rights to workers at the Volkswagen assembly plant in Puebla, Mexico, the US Department of Labor reported in a release.
“We are deeply concerned by the alleged violations of freedom of association against 10 union members at the Volkswagen plant in Puebla (...) Retaliating against workers for their union activities violates the workers' basic and fundamental rights that the USMCA protects,” he said Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs Thea Lee.
“We are committed to working with the Mexican government to investigate these matters thoroughly and to ensure that Volkswagen workers’ essential rights are upheld.” Lee said, according to the statement.
Co-chaired by the Department of Labor and the Office of the US Trade Representative, the agreement's Interagency Labor Committee found sufficient and credible evidence that the workers' freedom of association and collective bargaining rights were denied and initiated the review request.
Mexico's government has 10 days to decide whether to conduct a review and 45 days to investigate the claims and present its findings.
The Volkswagen Mexico plant in Puebla employs about 6,100 assembly line workers, 5,000 supervisory or trusted employees and thousands of parts-assembly workers. The facility manufactures 2,300 vehicles per day comprised of six different models. In 2023, the company exported more than 300,000 of those vehicles, including 67 percent for sale in the US.