26K75IL000027

Partners of the Americas (POA) presents a $10 million, 54-month project to reduce wage suppression and other unfair labor practices in key Mexican trade sectors so that American workers can compete on a level playing field.

The initiative operates in Mexico City, Baja California, Jalisco, Guanajuato, and Querétaro—states selected for their importance to U.S. supply chains, institutional readiness, and political will—and engages state labor authorities, SMEs, worker organizations, and workers in the automotive, electronics, biomedical, logistics, and call center industries.

POA will:

(1) Develop and deploy the Targeted Response and Coordination for Enforcement (TRACE) system to connect conciliation centers and inspectors and detect systemic violations in real time;

(2) Enhance the National Labor Conciliation System (SINACOL) by integrating disaggregated data into the National Commission of Labor Conciliation Centers (CONACENTROS) open data platform for public accountability;

(3) Finalize and roll out the S?Colectiva management platform to standardize and increase transparency in collective conciliation;

(4) Introduce the Labor Inspection Management System (SIGIL), a mobile tool to modernize inspections with geolocation and real-time evidence;

(5) Institutionalize training programs for conciliators, inspectors, and judges through the CONACENTROS training module;

(6) Convene state-level summits to foster employer-authority dialogue on labor reform and USMCA obligations;

(7) Deliver compliance training for SMEs and scale a labor rights compliance checklist and toolkits;

(8) Launch the Collective Negotiation Data and Transparency Open System (CONDATOS) for transparent and actionable collective bargaining data;

(9) Train worker organizations to prepare stronger Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) petitions;

(10) Organize structured U.S.-Mexico union-to-union exchanges to strengthen bargaining strategies and financial analysis capacity; and

(11) Expand the Escuela de Liderazgo Sindical (Union Leadership School) to cultivate a new generation of democratic labor leaders.

These activities will generate deliverables including operational enforcement systems, disaggregated open-data modules, compliance dashboards and checklists, standardized training curricula, union bargaining resources, and institutionalized tripartite dialogue mechanisms.

Together they will produce three outcomes:

(1) Labor law enforcement strengthened, as state authorities gain tools to identify and sanction systemic violations;

(2) Employers adapt to the new labor justice system and increase compliance, supported by accessible tools and sustained dialogue; and

(3) Workers’ and worker organizations’ capacity improved to effectively negotiate meaningful improvements in wages and working conditions, through transparent bargaining data, effective petitions, and leadership development.

The sustained impact will be a coordinated labor enforcement system, a culture of compliance among employers, and empowered worker organizations with the resources to safeguard freedom of association, union democracy, and collective bargaining well beyond the life of the project.

Direct beneficiaries include five state labor ministries and conciliation centers, hundreds of SMEs in priority sectors, and dozens of worker organizations, representing thousands of Mexican workers.

Indirect beneficiaries are American workers and businesses, who will benefit from reduced wage suppression, stronger compliance with USMCA labor provisions, and fairer competition in trade.

To achieve these results, POA partners with the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM), which will develop and scale TRACE, CONDATOS, SINACOL enhancements, and SIGIL to embed data-driven accountability at the state level, and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), which will lead worker-focused interventions—empowering workers to advance Mexico’s labor reform and protect fair competition for U.S. workers.

Partners Of The Americas

OUTCOME(S) PROJECT OUTCOMES WILL BE DEVELOPED POST AWARD USING ILAB'S THEORY OF SUSTAINED CHANGE.

17.401 - International Labor Programs

OASAM Office of Grants Management [DOL - OASAM]

Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILA) [DOL]

Mexico

Foreign

Leveling the Field for American Workers in U.S.-Mexico Trade (FOA-ILAB-25-43)