The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) said Oct. 23 it had resolved labor concerns at Amphenol’s Nogales plant and told Treasury to finalize duty assessments on pending import entries from the facility.
The matter concerns the Amphenol Optimize México, S.A. de C.V. facility in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, which makes connectors, cables and components for the automotive and aerospace sectors, USTR said. The directive covers import entries from the facility that remain unliquidated. Liquidation sets the final duty assessment for an import entry.
The company returned nine workers to their jobs with full backpay and benefits. It also adopted a statement and guidelines on neutrality in union activity and created a channel for workers to report rights violations or breaches of company policy, according to USTR.
Mexico provided anonymous reporting options by email, online platform and telephone. During its inquiry, the government also engaged with workers and the company, monitored the facility and trained company personnel in person on freedom of association and collective bargaining, USTR said.
The case began with a petition filed April 11, 2025, by the Mexican union Sindicato Industrial Operaciones y Manufacturas. The union alleged that workers were pressured to support the company’s preferred result in a union vote, discouraged from joining an independent union and dismissed because of their union preferences. The Interagency Labor Committee for Monitoring and Enforcement, co-chaired by USTR and the Secretary of Labor, reviews petitions within 30 days. It found the evidence in this case warranted invoking the enforcement process. USTR asked Mexico to review the matter on May 9, 2025. Mexico accepted, investigated and worked with Amphenol on remedies.
The action falls under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s (USMCA) Rapid Response Labor Mechanism. EconoTimes previously covered a separate liquidation directive involving a Mexican plant under the same mechanism.
