WASHINGTON, DC – September 27, 2026 (STL.News) The United States has formally asked Mexico to investigate allegations that workers at a Yokohama Rubber tire facility in Coahuila were denied rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, escalating a labor dispute at a company simultaneously expanding production in Mexico after closing a longtime tire factory in Virginia.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative invoked the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s Rapid Response Labor Mechanism, or RRM, on Sept. 25 concerning Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Mexico, S.A. de C.V.
The action followed a petition alleging retaliation against workers involved in union activity, unequal treatment of workers supporting an independent union, improper dismissals, unequal access to the factory for competing unions, and other alleged interference with workers’ organizing rights.
The U.S. Interagency Labor Committee for Monitoring and Enforcement determined after reviewing the petition that there was “sufficient, credible evidence” of a possible denial of rights to justify invoking the USMCA enforcement mechanism.
That determination is significant, but it is not a final ruling that Yokohama violated Mexican law or the USMCA. Mexico now has an opportunity to review the allegations itself.
The U.S. government also directed the suspension of liquidation of entries of goods from the Yokohama facility while the matter proceeds, giving the labor dispute potential trade consequences beyond the plant itself. USTR’s USMCA enforcement page separately lists both the U.S. request for review and the letter directing the suspension.
Mexico Faces Deadline to Review Yokohama Case
The dispute began formally under the USMCA process when the Interagency Labor Committee received a petition on Aug. 26 from the Liga Sindical Obrera Mexicana, or LSOM, and the International Lawyers Assisting Workers Network.
According to USTR, the petition alleges that Yokohama retaliated against employees engaged in union activity and treated LSOM supporters differently from supporters of a competing union.
Allegations include denying LSOM special delegates access to the plant while representatives of a competing union allegedly received unrestricted access, irregularities surrounding a Certificate of Representation vote, unlawful dismissals, and failure to comply with the sectoral collective bargaining agreement covering Mexico’s rubber manufacturing industry, known as the “contrato ley.”
After its review, the U.S. committee concluded there was sufficient credible evidence to make a good-faith invocation of the RRM.
Mexico has 10 days from the U.S. request to decide whether it will conduct the review. If Mexico agrees, it has 45 days from the Sept. 25 request to complete the review, according to USTR.
The mechanism gives the United States and Mexico a way to address alleged denials of collective labor rights at individual facilities rather than relying exclusively on broader government-to-government trade disputes.
Union Battle at Yokohama Predates U.S. Action
The dispute did not suddenly emerge with Washington’s Sept. 25 announcement.
Mexican reporting shows that LSOM had been raising concerns about organizing at Yokohama for months.
In June, the union was already preparing to pursue a USMCA complaint, alleging that Yokohama was obstructing its attempts to represent workers and favoring the Miguel Trujillo union affiliated with the Confederation of Mexican Workers, or CTM.
LSOM representatives alleged that the independent union had sought access to the Saltillo workplace while representatives of the CTM-affiliated organization were allowed access. LSOM made those allegations, which were not, by themselves, findings against Yokohama.
The representation process continued through the summer.
According to reporting in Mexico, LSOM submitted a request on May 19 seeking a certificate of representation and asserted that it initially demonstrated support from at least 30% of a group of 93 workers eligible to participate.
LSOM later accused Mexico’s Federal Center for Labor Conciliation and Registration of delays and irregularities in the process. Again, those assertions came from the union and should not be treated as established findings.
Mexico’s federal labor authority publicly listed a new consultation concerning a Certificate of Representation for Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Mexico among its official proceedings.
CTM-Affiliated Union Wins September Vote
The dispute became more complicated immediately before the United States invoked the RRM.
Workers voted Sept. 24 on representation at the Yokohama facility. The CTM-affiliated Miguel Trujillo union received 59 votes, compared with 29 for LSOM, according to Mexican reporting.
LSOM disputed the circumstances surrounding that result.
The independent union alleged that more than 20 workers who supported it were prevented from participating because they were sent to a training activity in central Saltillo while voting was underway at the plant.
LSOM representatives also alleged vote buying, threats, and company interference in the election.
No final government determination has established those claims as fact.
Mexico’s Federal Center for Labor Conciliation and Registration supervised the consultation, according to reporting from Mexico. LSOM said it intended to challenge the process and seek another vote.
The timing is notable: the representation vote occurred Sept. 24, and USTR announced its formal request for Mexico’s review the following day.
The U.S. request, however, arose from the petition submitted Aug. 26 and the government’s subsequent review, rather than solely from allegations surrounding the Sept. 24 election.
Yokohama Closed Virginia Plant in March
The labor case also carries an unusually direct U.S. manufacturing dimension.
In announcing its enforcement action, USTR specifically pointed to Yokohama’s recent closure of its tire manufacturing plant in Salem, Virginia, describing the shutdown as resulting in the layoff of nearly 600 American workers.
Yokohama Rubber announced March 16 that the Salem factory would close effective March 18.
The company said approximately 570 employees were affected and that it was providing outplacement assistance in cooperation with local agencies and the labor union.
Virginia’s official Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification database provides a somewhat different count. Virginia Works lists Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Virginia LLC’s closure as affecting 533 employees, with a notice date of Jan. 16 and an impact date of March 18.
The numbers are not necessarily contradictory because corporate employment counts and WARN-covered positions can be calculated differently. For accuracy, the figures should remain separately attributed rather than converted into a single definitive number.
The Salem plant had operated since the 1960s and produced Yokohama-brand passenger tires after Yokohama Rubber acquired Mohawk Rubber Co. in 1989.
Yokohama attributed the shutdown to aging equipment and outdated production methods that it said made achieving its future production objectives difficult.
The company said the closure was part of its strategy to increase production and sales of higher-value premium and larger-diameter tires and optimize its global manufacturing system.
Yokohama Investing $380 Million in Mexico
At the same time, Yokohama is making a major investment in tire production in Mexico.
The company announced in March 2024 that it would construct a passenger-car tire plant in Mexico designed specifically to strengthen its ability to supply the North American market.
Yokohama put the planned investment at approximately $380 million.
The Saltillo, Coahuila, plant was designed for an annual production capacity of about 5 million passenger-car tires and occupies roughly 610,000 square meters.
The company’s original timetable called for construction to begin in the second quarter of 2024 and production to begin during the first quarter of 2027.
Company financial materials described the project as an expansion of production capacity in North America based on the concept of local production for local consumption. The company identified North America as the plant’s principal target market and said the facility would manufacture passenger-car tires in sizes ranging from 17 to 22 inches.
The chronology matters.
Yokohama announced the $380 million Mexican project approximately two years before it closed the Salem factory. Therefore, available evidence does not support describing the Mexican factory as a project created in response to the Virginia closure.
Nor does the evidence reviewed by STL.News establish that the approximately 533 to 570 jobs affected in Salem were directly transferred to workers in Mexico.
The developments can accurately be reported together because Yokohama is reducing manufacturing at one North American location while investing heavily in another, and because the U.S. government itself explicitly referenced the Salem closure when announcing the Mexican labor enforcement action.
But a direct one-for-one relocation of jobs has not been established.
Another $115 Million Expansion Planned
Yokohama’s investment in Coahuila goes beyond the original passenger-tire factory.
On May 15, less than two months after the Salem closure, Yokohama Rubber announced plans for an additional $115 million investment at the same Saltillo site.
The Phase 2 project is intended to produce tires for mining, construction and agricultural machinery.
Yokohama said the Mexican expansion will have annual production capacity of approximately 10,650 tons by rubber weight, with construction planned to begin in the third quarter of 2026 and production scheduled for the second quarter of 2028.
That project is tied partly to Yokohama’s acquisition of Goodyear’s off-the-road tire business rather than the Salem passenger-tire operation.
Yokohama said the Mexican and Indian projects announced in May would take over portions of off-the-road tire production that had been outsourced to Goodyear facilities in Europe, the United States and elsewhere.
The company also specifically said the Mexican operation would include agricultural tires previously produced at the Yokohama TWS plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, until March 2025.
Taken together, the original $380 million project and $115 million Phase 2 expansion represent approximately $495 million in announced investment at the Coahuila site.
Trade Enforcement Raises Stakes for Yokohama
The USMCA Rapid Response Labor Mechanism was designed to make labor provisions enforceable at the facility level.
That makes the Yokohama dispute more consequential than a conventional disagreement between rival unions.
USTR’s Sept. 25 action places the dispute inside a formal international trade enforcement process and directs the suspension of liquidation of entries of goods from the facility until further notice.
Suspension of liquidation is not the same as an across-the-board ban on importing Yokohama tires.
In customs terminology, liquidation generally refers to the final calculation and assessment of duties on an entry. The government’s wording therefore should not be characterized as an outright embargo unless it imposes additional trade restrictions.
The next major development will be Mexico’s response to Washington’s request.
If Mexico accepts the review, its authorities will have the opportunity to investigate whether workers at the Coahuila facility were denied freedom of association and collective bargaining rights and determine what remediation, if any, is appropriate.
The Sept. 24 representation vote could also remain important because LSOM has challenged the circumstances surrounding it.
For Yokohama, the dispute arrives at a sensitive moment. The company is building significant new manufacturing capacity in Mexico aimed at the North American market while the shutdown of its decades-old Virginia operation remains recent.
For U.S. trade officials, the case tests whether labor provisions embedded in the USMCA can prevent lower labor standards or interference with organizing rights from becoming a competitive advantage for facilities supplying the American market.
For now, the allegations against Yokohama remain allegations. The U.S. government has determined that the evidence is credible enough to trigger the USMCA enforcement process, but Mexico’s review and any subsequent findings will determine whether a denial of rights is formally established and what comes next.
Editor’s note: Allegations described in this report have not been established as final findings against Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Mexico. The United States has requested a review under the USMCA Rapid Response Labor Mechanism, and Mexico has an opportunity to investigate the allegations.
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