WASHINGTON, D.C. – In Case You Missed It, a WKSU story today highlighted the first two cases filed under the Brown-Wyden Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). U.S. Sens. Brown (D-OH) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) fought for and successfully secured this important worker-empowering provision as part of the USMCA, for the first time, empowering workers to bring cases alleging labor violations at the facility level. The new agreement allows workers in Mexico to report when a company is violating their rights, and see action within months if it’s determined that workers’ rights have been violated. It would also apply punitive damages when corporations stop workers from organizing and stop goods from coming into the U.S. if these anti-worker tactics continue.

“Brown says cracking down on these practices will make it less attractive for American companies to take jobs to these countries—where incidents like this previously went unchecked, something he says that has impacted Ohio,” wrote Sarah Taylor for WKSU.

During a U.S. Senate Committee on Finance hearing last week, Brown (D-OH) asked U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai about her decision to implement the first ever self-initiated labor enforcement case to protect workers’ rights to organize under the Brown-Wyden Rapid RRM.

Last week, AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Sindicato Nacional Independiente de Trabajadores de Industrias y de Servicios MOVIMIENTO 20/32 (SNITIS), and Public Citizen filed a separate complaint under the Brown-Wyden RRM.

Together, these two enforcement cases – the one initiated by AFL-CIO and the one self-initiated by USTR – show that the Brown-Wyden provision is working.

Read more about Brown’s legislation HERE. 

Download production-quality video of Sen. Brown’s full exchange with Ambassador Tai HERE.

Read WKSU’s full article HERE or below:

Labor Complaints Filed Against Two Mexican Companies Using Provision Co-authored by Sen. Sherrod Brown

By Sarah Taylor

May 17, 2021

A provision in the U.S. Mexico-Canada trade agreement is getting its first test. Complaints have been lodged against two Mexican companies under a rapid response mechanism meant to stop workers from being mistreated.

Ohio’s senior senator welcomes the news.

The USMCA was the first trade agreement Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) voted for. It included the Brown-Wyden provision, which he co-authored with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), that offers this avenue to fight worker mistreatment.

Labor unions have initiated one complaint against the auto parts factory Tridonex in Matamoros, Mexico. The U.S. trade representative filed the other complaint alleging ballots cast in a union vote at a GM plant in northern Mexico were destroyed.

“These two Mexican companies are violating U.S. trade, labor law, they are mistreating illegally their workers in Mexico," Brown said.

Brown says cracking down on these practices will make it less attractive for American companies to take jobs to these countries—where incidents like this previously went unchecked, something he says that has impacted Ohio.

“That's what in so many ways has hurt our state for decades with lost jobs; that companies move overseas and exploit cheap labor and weak environmental laws and then sell their products back here.”

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