The Office of the United States Trade Representative said on Monday it has invoked the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism in the USMCA to ask Mexico to review whether workers at Madobox, S.A. de C.V., in Uruapan, Michoacan, are being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining, and it has suspended liquidation of unliquidated entries of goods from the facility, which produces boxes for commercial use.
The request follows a petition filed on September 30, 2026 by a Mexican labor union affiliated with the Confederacion Central Nacional, alleging that Madobox interfered with union activity, including by arranging a collective bargaining agreement negotiated without workers, coercing and misinforming workers about the agreement and their union rights, and dismissing workers in retaliation for union activity. The interagency labor committee said it found sufficient, credible evidence of a denial of rights. Mexico has 10 days to agree to conduct a review and, if it agrees, 45 days from Monday to complete it.