"USTR Invokes USMCA in Defense of Call Center Workers’ Rights in Mexico", 20 January 2024

...In an unprecedented move, Katherine Tai, the United States Trade Representative (USTR), has invoked the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in defense of call center workers’ rights in Mexico. The intervention, a first in the call center industry, specifically targets Atento Servicios, S.A. de C.V., a multinational corporation known for providing outsourced customer support services.

Reports suggest that employees at the company’s facilities in Pachuca, Hidalgo, are being denied their basic rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s Interagency Labor Committee for Monitoring and Enforcement has requested the Mexican government to conduct a review at these Atento call centers.

The request, made under the USMCA’s Rapid Response Labor Mechanism, alleges unlawful termination of workers for union organizing and interference with union activities...

Mexico now has ten days to decide whether to conduct a review and 45 days to investigate the claims and present its findings...