Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

ILAB Press Release: Labor Department Will Review NAFTA Submission About Mexican Labor Law [08/02/1996]

For more information call: (202) 219-6373

The National Administrative Office (NAO) will consider a submission about the trade union rights of Mexican federal workers.

The NAO, based in the U.S. Labor Department and created as part of NAFTA, will study a submission filed June 13 by three human rights groups. The groups allege that freedom of association rights were violated when the union representing employees of the Mexican fishing ministry was deregistered following the ministry's consolidation with the Ministry of the Environment, Natural Resources and Fishing. The NAO will also look at claims that the Mexican labor board was not impartial in its review of this case.

The 2,300 workers were members of the Single Trade Union of Workers of the Fishing Ministry. When the consolidation took place, their union was deregistered by the Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Tribunal, the labor board with jurisdiction over federal employee labor matters.

The submission alleges a conflict of interest because the composition of the board includes a representative of the replacement union.

The request for review also alleges that a restriction of only one union in each state agency limits freedom of association by federal workers. There is no such restriction on unions of employees working for private companies.

The submission was filed by Human Rights Watch/America, the International Labor Rights Fund and the National Association of Democratic Lawyers.

Under the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), each NAFTA signatory set up its own National Administrative Office. Among the responsibilities of the NAOs is the review of labor law matters in the other signatory countries.

The NAO has 120 days to review the submission and to issue a report of findings.

To date, this is the fifth submission the U.S. NAO has accepted for review. The Mexican NAO has reviewed one submission against the U.S.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.