Mexican Firm Hauling Hyundai Auto Parts and Trailers Throughout the United States Has Fired Union Organizers, Launched Smear Campaigns, and Imposed a Sham Union on Drivers

Washington, D.C. — The Sindicato de Transportistas de las Cadenas de Suministro (SITRABICS) and Rethink Trade filed a Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) labor complaint today under the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) against a Mexican trucking facility controlled by multinational company Hyundai. The facility has fired union organizers, intimidated workers, and blacklisted fired leaders in response to a union organizing campaign.

“Since May 2021, drivers working for outsourced hauling corporations that transport Hyundai products manufactured in Mexico to various U.S. states have organized ourselves into a union in response to employer abuses, low wages, and precarious working conditions,” said Jesús Iturbero Salinas, General Secretary of SITRABICS. “When the company targeted with this case became aware of our demands, it fired me and other organizers. After our illegal layoffs, the company has continued harassing and threatening more workers—using a sham protection union with which it signed collective bargaining agreements behind our backs.”

“Multinational companies like Hyundai use a range of illegal and abusive tactics—such as unlawful outsourcing and shell companies—to deny workers their rights and obstruct union organizing,” said Daniel Rangel, a lawyer with Rethink Trade and one of the petitioners in the case. “Thankfully, the USMCA’s Rapid Response Mechanism gives workers tools to fight back. By filing this case, we trust that U.S. and Mexican authorities will cooperate to address the serious denial of rights outlined in our petition.”

“There are many laws protecting drivers’ rights, but they are not enforced. Drivers in the United States and Mexico should have the same rights: good wages, better working conditions, and healthcare. That is why we are supporting this complaint, so that drivers can have rights,” said Sal Abrica, Political Coordinator with Teamsters Local 542.

Rethink Trade is a program of the American Economic Liberties Project.

Learn more about Economic Liberties and Rethink Trade. 

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.