The 86% of the salaried population In Mexico, she is not affiliated with a union, according to the Dignified Work Observatory (OTD). The rest, 14%, is in the midst of a struggle to democratize the trade union organization to which it belongs, or to get rid of it and create a new and independent one. There will also be a part that is simply ratifying its support for the group to which it is attached.
The labor reform of 2019 it established new conditions for unions, requirements that might now seem obvious, but which were not reckoned with. One of them is the prohibition to the leaders to eternalize themselves in power. But he also incorporated the express impediment for the employer to hinder or coerce the union life in their workplaces, which was reflected in article 133 of the Federal Labor Law (LFT).
The expulsion of the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) from the General Motors (GM) plant in Silao, Guanajuato, is perhaps one of the main examples of how the current rules work. But it is not the only workplace that has been losing, recently Panasonic rejected its membership in this group through a free, direct and secret vote, a new measure for Mexican trade unionism. Throughout the country, other labor organizations they face problems in moving towards democratization and the obstacles do not only come from the working class charrismo.
At the ZF Suspension Technology Guadalajara plant “the company intervened in the elections to renew the leadership of the independent union” and assumed union functions, says Enrique Valdez Florez, who ran for the general secretary in November 2021. After that process he was fired.
“We are the counterexample of what is happening in other centers, the CTM has unions that are up to the task,” says Alejandro Martínez Araiza, leader of the National Food and Commerce Union (SNAC). That organization, which brings together more than 25,000 workers from Grupo Bimbo, Ricolino, Barcel, El Globo, Hershey’s, or Comex, among many other companies, legitimized its collective labor agreement (CCT) in 2020 “without any disappointment,” he says.
Many leaders “moved away from the bases and the reason for being of the unions. They are reaping what they sowed”, he points out in an interview.
Intervention in union life
The conflict with the Independent Union of ZF Suspension Technology Guadalajara Workers “began between Human Resources and the union leader, Erick Reyes,” says Enrique Valdez. It is that before, “the founder of the union, Jorge Reyes, did not want to apply the labour reform and left his son Erick, that unleashed everything.
ZF is a shock absorber plant that supplies inputs to GM, Honda, Nissan, Volkswagen, Audi and Toyota. “After the company removed Erick Reyes, it took the union functions and organized new elections for the leadership, in which two affiliated workers and a candidate who resigned from the union several years ago presented themselves. She was named Human Resources”.
On the day of the elections there were clashes between the staff and, in the end, the company has not recognized anyone as head of leadership, point. Erick Reyes continues to assume himself as general secretary, but is out of the company.
“The union hall is closed. Since December 2021 they continue to discount the union dues and one more due to death, but they are not delivered to the union.” Each month they accumulate between 45,000 and 50,000 pesos, he says.
Soon, Valdez was also fired on the grounds of downsizing. “But that has not been demonstrated before the conciliatory authorities because the company and the position he held survive.” Of 40 capturers, only he was fired.
As happened in GM, this is also a case in which the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC) must be enforced, it requires, since ZF Suspension Technology Guadalajara “exports to those countries.” And he stresses: “we do not want to remove the union, we want syndical freedom”.
“The Counterexample”
More of 29.5 million salaried people They are not members of a union, which represents 86% of this group of the employed population, according to the Observatory of Decent Work (OTD). That would mean that only a little over 4 million do belong to one and would have a collective bargaining agreement (CCT) with greater benefits. But the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) calculates that 85% of these CCTs are for the protection of companies.
The percentage of people without union affiliation rises in the young population, a line in which it reaches 93 percent. “In Mexico, the experience of trade unionism has been very negative due to corrupt organizations that do not defend workers. The union corruption and the low level of organization and affiliation explain in part the deterioration of the labor system”, indicates the OTD.
“The CTM is the most historic plant. It was not this movement that drove the youth of trade unionism”, says Alejandro Martínez, leader of the SNAC. A few weeks ago, “we went to a company call center and of almost 2,000 workers only 30 did not want to join”, 85% of this staff is from the generation centennialExplain.
“What we saw is that young people are hungry for labor justice. That generation will return to unionism, a movement that embraced great changes in the world, like the Russian Revolution, for better or worse”, he adds.
The CTM “has the richest contracts in the country, is the center that for decades has given stability to Mexicans. But since it is very big, there will always be people who do not do things well”.
The also leader of section 11 of the CTM recognizes that the unions have “a historical debt with the workers”, therefore, “close to 98% is drifting from the will of the companies”.
Many businessmen “have not understood that the old model is over. They enjoyed it and squeezed it, but it’s over.” If they don’t want to understand it, “they are going to put the stability of the company at risk, as happens at GM and in maquiladoras. It is one thing to change the union, but when you exploit a strike, the company does not reach agreements and branches are closed, we all lose. It is not about waging a trade union war”, but about reconciling and dialoguing, he believes.
The processes mandated by the labor reform “have not been difficult for the SNAC, we accustom the companies to the trade union democracy”. In August 2020, with a participation of 93% of the list, and with more than 90% of the votes in favor, they legitimized their CCT, affirms Alejandro Martínez.
It is necessary, he says, that the unions “go back to being the relevant actor in the country’s decisions.” And he remembers: it was the trade union organizations that promoted article 123 of the Constitution, dedicated to labor rightsas well as the LFT, the minimum wage and the creation of organizations such as the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS).