Biden White House quietly intervenes in international labor dispute over legal objections

The White House is escalating a labor dispute at a major mine in central Mexico, a move backed by powerful labor unions but could have a devastating effect on workers and the economy.

The United States Trade Representative (USTR), which is based in the White House, is pursuing the issue using a little-used tool in the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

The Labor Rapid Response Mechanism (RMR) is a provision that allows the government to take enforcement action against factories if they fail to respect internal freedom of association and collective bargaining laws. As part of its effort, USTR successfully convened the first RRM tribunal to consider concerns raised by US and Mexican labor officials.

“This announcement supports the Biden-Harris administration's commitment to creating a more level playing field for workers to feel empowered and using every enforcement tool at our disposal to protect workers' rights,” said Trade Representative US Katherine Tai after her office filed its initial motion to convene the RRM court.

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However, the process has faced significant pushback from the Mexican government American Chamber of Commerce and the mine's owner, Grupo Mexico, which has argued that the US government has no jurisdiction in the dispute. Critics have also warned that the process, which is expected to conclude with a decision as early as Friday, lacks transparency.

The case dates back more than a decade and a half when, in 2007, the powerful Mexican miners' union Los Mineros went on strike at Grupo Mexico's San Martin mine in Sombrerete, Zacatecas, which produces a large amount of lead, zinc and copper of Mexico. supplies. The strike was related, in part, to the security conditions in the country.

According to legal filings reviewed by Fox News Digital, the San Martin mine reopened 11 years later, in 2018, when the mine operator reached an agreement with Los Trabajadores Coaligados, a coalition of workers who voted to return to work and to end the strike. In June 2023, the Mexican Board of Conciliation and Arbitration, a government panel, confirmed in a ruling that the strike was over and San Martin could operate as normal.

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However, in the same month, USTR called the USMCA's RRM and asked the Mexican government to review whether mine workers were being denied their rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. The request was in response to a petition filed by Los Mineros along with the AFL-CIO and the United Steel Workers (USW).

On August 22, 2023, despite Mexico's assertion that the case was outside the scope of the USMCA, the USTR formally requested the RRM's first tribunal.

“USTR should never have brought this RRLM case because it is jurisdictionally flawed and there was no denial of rights at the mine,” said Jonathan Stoel, a partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells, which represents the San Martin mine. “The RRLM process since the June 2023 petition has been unfairly conducted by the US government and has been riddled with procedural violations.

“The US government's own documents made public as a result of our FOIA request revealed that the USTR dismissed a similar petition containing the same facts in 2020 and confirmed that this petition is more about policy than the alleged violations.” of work.”

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Those documents, reviewed by Fox News Digital, show that USTR officials in the Trump administration expressed skepticism about calling the RRM in this case. The disclosure came in an October 2020 memo sent to US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

In RRM court filings collected by the US last year, the San Martin mine has echoed some of the same concerns, arguing that its facility falls outside USMCA jurisdiction as its products are not exported to the US and that the labor dispute predates the signing of the commercial agreement.

Rep. Carol Miller, RW. Va., a member of the House Ways and Means Commerce Subcommittee, wrote a letter to Tai in late January, saying the RRM process is limited in scope and warning against abuse of the provision.

“Once again, Joe Biden is failing to promote fair trade or prioritize US trade interests,” Miller told Fox News Digital in a written statement. “The Biden administration's choice to use the RRM to reopen already settled labor disputes that have no impact on American industry shows a lack of seriousness in their trade agenda.”

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AND American Chamber of Commerce, the world's largest business federation, filed a brief in the case, saying it was concerned about the broader implications of a North American nation calling for RRM in the future.

“The US governments' pursuit of this case violates a central principle on which the US legal system was built. The principle is that laws are not retroactive unless lawmakers expressly specify otherwise,” the chamber's November report said.

“The facts relied upon by the US government to support its case involving the San Martín mine occurred before the USMCA was negotiated, before the USMCA was passed by the US Congress, and before it entered into force.”

Overall, the case, which could eventually lead to the forced closure of the San Martin mine, could have a major impact on the local economy in Sombrerete and the economy of Mexico in general. The mine employs about 1,000 workers and, last year, the mine produced more than 1.4 million tons of lead, zinc, copper and silver, key minerals for a wide variety of technologies and products, according to financial filings.

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And it could further benefit Los Mineros General Secretary Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, who is facing criminal charges and was ordered by a Mexican court to pay $54 million in an alleged embezzlement scheme, Mexico Business News previously reported. One of Los Mineros' demands to end the San Martin strike was that the Mexican federal government drop the charges against Urrutia.

The USTR, AFL-CIO, USW and Los Mineros did not respond to requests for comment for this story.