“The amount of work that needs to be done is tremendous,” Su told Reuters on Wednesday in an interview in the city of San Luis Potosi, one of Mexico’s main auto enclaves in the north-central part of the country.
On her first international trip in office, the official met with workers, business leaders and local government officials. “There’s a broad recognition that this is going to take resources to get right,” she added.
The country’s 31 states and Mexico City are scheduled to implement changes to their labor justice systems by May 2022, although the national Labor Secretariat has requested a five-month extension for a dozen of those entities due to budget and calendar constraints.
Still, Su explained that Mexican authorities had made “good progress,” citing the creation of a federal agency to quickly process worker disputes and oversee votes to ratify union contracts.
He also noted that local and federal officials had increased hiring and training, and planned to do more. “We are … awaiting that the rest of the commitments are also fulfilled,” she said, asking US companies to set an example of good behavior in Mexico.
General Motors faced scrutiny from the USMCA mechanisms last year for labor rights violations, as did Cardone, in his case for allegations of abuse at his Tridonex auto parts plant. Both companies promised to respect workers’ rights.
“We hope there will be leadership from corporate America as well to support the USMCA commitments and to help create a culture where there is a broader recognition that what’s good for workers is good for business.” said the undersecretary.
Several employees of a plant in San Luis Potosí of the industrial giant 3M in a meeting with Su, asked his team to continue monitoring US firms in Mexico, especially now that a group of workers from that company begins the task of forming a union. Independent.
“We recognize the importance of keeping an eye on making sure that the promises in the laws, the promises in the T-MEC (…) are really carried out,” the official replied. The 3M company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
