The White House took the unprecedented step of intervening in an international labor dispute last year after a push from powerful U.S. labor unions. Then, months later, a multi-nation tribunal threw the case out, handing a defeat to the administration and its labor allies.
Last year, the AFL-CIO and United Steelworkersâwhich collectively represent more than 13 million American workers and regularly funnel millions of dollars to Democratic campaigns, according to Federal Election Commission dataâmade their formal appeal to the White Houseâs Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), according to legal filings reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.
In the appeal, the unions called on the administration to invoke a little-known clause in the 2020 North American trade agreement in support of Los Mineros, a Mexican minersâ union locked in a years-long labor dispute with the massive San Martin mine in Zacatecas, Mexico. The White House, which regularly claims to be the most pro-union White House in U.S. history, soon obliged and assembled a panel to review the case.
âThis announcement upholds the Biden-Harris administrationâs commitment to creating a more level playing field for workers to feel empowered and using every enforcement tool at our disposal to safeguard workersâ rights,â Trade Representative Katherine Tai said at the time.
The U.S. intervention in the case sparked criticism from the Mexican government, the mineâs operator Grupo Mexico, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and lawmakers who raised concern over the potential ramifications of USTRâs actions. The actions, if successful, could have led to the forceable closure of a facility that employs hundreds of workers and provides key industries with more than a million tons of lead, zinc, copper, and silver, financial filings show.
Critics further argued the actions also could have led to potentially greater U.S. involvement in international labor disputes.
In the case, the White House invoked the so-called Rapid Response Labor Mechanism (RRM), which, under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement of 2020 (USMCA), allows enforcement against North American employers proven to violate labor laws. It represented the first time an RRM panel has been assembled since the trade agreement was entered into force.
The panel, comprised of a representative from the United States, Canada, and Mexico, ultimately rejected the case last month in a sprawling 119-page report firmly rejecting the USTRâs arguments that Grupo Mexico had violated workersâ collective bargaining rights at the San Martin mine. Panel members ruled in part that the U.S. government couldnât invoke the USMCA in a case that preceded the trade agreement.
âI have ongoing concerns that the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism under USMCA is not being used as it was intended,â Rep. Carol Miller (R., W.Va.) told the Free Beacon. âThe USTR continues to prove they are beholden to big labor interests at the detriment of American workers.â
âUnfortunately, the American people will continue to bear the brunt of the Biden administrationâs weak leadership and misguided priorities,â Miller continued. âI encourage Representative Tai to focus [and] take active steps to use RRM as Congress intended when we passed President Trumpâs USMCA and put Americans first.â
Miller wrote to Tai earlier this year in a letter obtained by the Free Beacon, probing her officeâs use of the RRM in the case.
Tai, however, characterized the panelâs final determination as âboth surprising and disappointing.â And Deputy Undersecretary for International Labor Affairs Thea Lee said that while the ruling failed to deliver justice to Mexican workers, the administration would continue to âprotect freedom of association and collective bargaining rights in Mexico.â
The United Steelworkers said the ruling was âsimply unacceptable.â
âThe failure to find a denial of rights at the company sends a message that the rights of corporations outweigh those of workers,â the union said in a statement.
The case stems from a strike organized in 2007 by Los Mineros at the mine over work safety conditions and pay. The mine reopened more than a decade later after Grupo Mexico entered into an agreement with Los Trabajadores Coaligados, a new coalition of miners that sought a return to work.
Despite subsequent government rulings confirming that the strike had officially ended with that agreement, Los Mineros argued the agreement was a violation of labor law.
âThe tribunalâs findings demonstrate that the United States should never have started Rapid Response Labor Mechanism proceedings against Grupo Mexico in the first place,â Jonathan Stoel, a partner at Hogan Lovells, a law firm that represented Grupo Mexico in the case, told the Free Beacon in a statement.
Los Mineros and its general secretary, NapoleĂłn GĂłmez Urrutia, have faced scandal in the past. Years ago, a Mexican court ordered Los Mineros and Urrutia to pay $54 million in an alleged embezzlement scheme.
That led Urrutia and his family to flee Mexico for Canada in 2006, where they remained until 2018. His return was aided by Mexican president AndrĂ©s Manuel LĂłpez Obrador, who appointed Urrutia to the nationâs Senate chamber. Most members of the Mexican Senate are elected while a small minority are selected by political parties.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the embezzlement charges against Urrutia were dropped in 2014.
The AFL-CIO and United Steelworkers are longtime allies of Urrutia. In 2011, the AFL-CIO nominated the Mexican labor leader for a top human rights award, and the United Steelworkers issued a congratulatory statement when Urrutia returned to Mexico from exile.
Los Mineros and the AFL-CIO did not respond to requests for comment.
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