U.S. wins landmark labor case against Atento call center in Mexico
HIDALGO, MEXICO — The United States has secured its first victory using the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) rapid response labor mechanism, confirming serious workers’ rights violations at a Mexican call center.
According to The Presidential Prayer Team, a dispute panel ruled that Mexico failed to adequately address anti-union discrimination and interference at an Atento facility in Hidalgo.
Stronger accountability under USMCA labor rules
The panel that tried the case established that the management of the Atento call center had carried out intensive anti-union practices, which included the firing of union leaders and an atmosphere of fear among workers.
This provides a strong precedent on how labor disputes between countries will be managed under the modernized trade agreement.
The decision specifically concluded that the corrective measures adopted by Mexico itself were unsuitable due to the gravity and length of the infractions at the plant.
The panel has raised the compliance bar and demonstrated that fixes to systemic labor rights problems will not be taken lightly by rejecting Mexico’s claim that the issue had been resolved.
Ruling calls for broader worker protections
The conclusion, published on August 21, 2025, emphasizes that the labor protections incorporated into the USMCA must be actively and continuously enforced. It goes beyond this one plant and suggests that stronger systemic protections of workers are needed to eliminate such offenses throughout the call center sector in Mexico and beyond.
The ruling requires the taking of specific measures to address the denial of rights, such as the right to association, which was confirmed during the panel’s site visits and hearings in May 2025.
The process, initiated after a 2023 petition from a Mexican union, underscores the mechanism’s design to empower workers and their representatives to seek international recourse.
This introduces a new dimension of responsibility for multinational companies currently doing business in Mexico, whose labor rights are not merely a figment of imagination, but are reviewed and implemented through a twofold process between the two nations.
Atento ranked #26 in the OA500 2025, an objective index of the world’s top 500 outsourcing companies.
