[Excerpt] This report by the Secretariat of the Commission for Labor Cooperation responds to a request from the Council of Ministers for a study of the effects of plant closings on the principle of freedom of association and the right to organize in the three countries that negotiated the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC). In February 1996, the Council of Ministers called for this report following ministerial consultations initiated by Mexico on a plant closing that occurred in the United States during a union organizing campaign. This is the first special report by the Secretariat under Article 14 of the NAALC, which provides for special reports on "any matter as the Council may request."