White House calls on Mexican government to probe possible labor violations at GM auto plant
Source: Washington Post
Economy
White House calls on Mexican government to probe possible labor violations at GM auto plant
Union vote questioned at facility making trucks for U.S. market
By David J. Lynch
May 12, 2021 at 5:00 a.m. EDT
In the first action of its kind, the Biden administration has formally asked the Mexican government to investigate reports of “serious violations” of worker rights at a General Motors plant in central Mexico, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said.
The move marks the first use of an innovative labor rights provision in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, which took effect last year.
It also represents the first time the U.S. government has acted on its own to raise labor concerns under any trade agreement, though Washington has previously done so in response to complaints lodged by unions, said a senior administration official, who insisted on anonymity to brief reporters.
As a senior House trade attorney, Tai helped fashion the “rapid response labor mechanism” in the new North American trade deal as a way to address long-standing Democratic ire over the loss of U.S. factory jobs to low-wage Mexican competition. Promoting Mexican labor rights would ultimately raise wages south of the border, reducing the incentive for employers to move jobs there, Democrats said.
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By David J. Lynch
David J. Lynch is a staff writer on the financial desk who joined The Washington Post in November 2017 after working for the Financial Times, Bloomberg News and USA Today. Twitter https://twitter.com/davidjlynch
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/05/12/us-mexico-gm-labor/
In the first action of its kind, the Biden administration has formally asked the Mexican government to investigate reports of “serious violations” of worker rights at a General Motors plant in central Mexico
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