USMCA Labor Complaint Targets Chinese Plant

The United States is asking Mexico to review whether workers at a Chinese-owned manufacturing facility located in Mexico are being denied worker rights.

The request, under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s rapid response labor mechanism, seeks information on whether workers at the Impro Industries Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V. facility in the city of Villa de Reyes in the State of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, are being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

Impro is a Hong-Kong based maker of cast and machined component parts for use in the aerospace, energy, medical, automotive, and agricultural industries,.

Impro’s 'Phase One' Project features a 1,200,000 square feet facility, 45km south of the San Luis Potosi International Airport.

The campus design allows for a total construction area of over two million square feet.including

•  Precision Machining Plant.
•  Sand Casting Plant,,
•  Investment Casting Plant,,
•  Aerospace Components Plant, and
•  Surface Treatment Plant. 

The United States has suspended liquidation of tariffs on goods from the Impro Mexico facility.

The request is in response to a petition from La Liga Sindical Obrera Mexicana alleging that Impro Mexico unjustly fired workers for engaging in union activity and that the union that currently holds collective bargaining rights at the facility, the ‘Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Industria Automotriz y Servicios en General Similares y Conexos de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, C.T.M.’, engaged in conduct that interfered with workers' rights to participate in voting procedures at the facility or otherwise discouraged affiliation with LSOM.

“We are deeply concerned by the dismissal of a union delegate for exercising what should be protected union activity,” said Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs Thea Lee. “This action violates Mexican labor laws and undermines the labor protections established under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.”

Mexico has ten days to agree to conduct a review and, if it agrees, 45 days from yesterday to complete the review.

Last October the US filed a similar complaint against Tesla supplier Asiaway Automotive.  That complaint was resolved in February.