Authorities from Mexico and the United States met at the Embassy of Mexico in Washington, D.C. to announce the beginning of “Labor Rights Week 2022”

Authorities from Mexico and the United States met at the Embassy of Mexico in Washington, D.C. to announce the beginning of “Labor Rights Week 2022”

Washington, D.C., August 29^th, 2022.

Ambassador Esteban Moctezuma and Vanesa Calva, General Director of Consular Protection and Strategic Planning of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE, acronym in Spanish), announced the beginning of the Labor Rights Week 2022 (LRW) at the Consular Section of the Embassy of Mexico in the United States.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), a valuable ally in this endeavor, was represented at this event by Douglas Parker, Undersecretary of the Office of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); Jessica Looman, Assistant Administrator in charge of the Wage and Hour Division (WHD); and Thea Lee, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the DOL. Jocelyn Samuels, Vice President of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and Jessica Rutter, Deputy General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) also participated.

Rafael Laveaga, head of the Consular Section of the Embassy of Mexico; Jessica Mendoza, Consul General of Guatemala; Lorena Mojica, Vice Consul of El Salvador and Allan Agurcia, from the Honduran Consular section were also in attendance.

This is the fourteenth edition of Labor Rights Week, and will be held from August 29^th to September 2^nd at the 51 consular offices of Mexico in the United States. The focus of this year’s edition is “inclusion and equality are rights of all workers".

The support of the DOL and its agencies –OSHA, WHD, NLRB, EEOC–, as well as labor rights organizations, lawyers, unions and other governments such as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, has been key to expanding the reach of the Mexican government and identifying possible violations of labor rights among members of migrant communities.

Ambassador Esteban Moctezuma emphasized that "for the Government of Mexico it is essential that workers are fully aware of their rights so they know what instances to turn to when these rights are not respected."

The Ambassador also thanked the participant Latin American countries and the U.S. allied agencies for helping to amplify the message to reach more communities.

The DOL representatives recognized the collective effort involved in this initiative and the importance of working together to address labor rights complaints and disseminate the obligations that all employers must respect to prevent labor abuses and discrimination.

The Government of Mexico, through the SRE, its Embassy and its consular network in the United States, reiterates that one of the highest priorities of its foreign policy is empowering, educating, and protecting the rights of the Mexican community.