Striking Tornel Workers File Second Labour Complaint with USMCA Panel

ByJared Laureles and Jessica Xantomila

This article by Jared Laureles and Jessica Xantomila originally appeared in the April 12, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Striking workers from the Tornel rubber company filed a second labor complaint under the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism (RRLM) of the USMCA for the alleged denial of their labor rights, following the armed attack they suffered last March.

Gerardo Meneses Ávila, general secretary of the National Union of Workers of the Hulera Tornel company, confirmed the above, but preferred to reserve the details due to the “delicate” nature of the events and not to hinder other existing investigations.

He pointed out that almost a month after the shooting attack in which four workers were injured, in the early morning of March 18 in Tultitlán, State of Mexico, the Secretariat of Labour and Social Welfare has not come to carry out any inspection.

Tornel rubber factory. Photo: Silvia Chávez González

The union leader recalled that in the case of Tornel there is already an open complaint under the USMCA labor mechanism, after the United States requested an investigation in January 2025 for the alleged violation of the rights of the workers at the tire manufacturing plant.

The request for review comes after a petition filed in December 2024 by the union, which alleged that the company did not apply the industry-wide collective bargaining agreement and instead applied an agreement with lower contractual benefits.

“We’ve been waiting for a year and four months without a response,” he said, regarding the remediation actions that will be implemented.

Francisco Retama, advisor to various independent unions, indicated that although the labour authority does not have the power to proceed regarding a crime, it could encourage the investigation, since there is “a criminal action aimed at preventing the exercise of a labour right.”

Since February 23, 1,051 workers have been on strike at the four plants in Mexico City and the State of Mexico.

They stopped activities because eight previously agreed benefits were not respected, including salary increases of 7 and 5 percent corresponding to 2025 and 2026, respectively; non-compliance with the 40-hour work week, since at the moment it is 48; a Christmas bonus of 44 days, and not 36 as they manage and the vacation bonus of 25 to 32 days depending on seniority.