Text published in Facebook /Holcim México en Resistencia by Valter Sánchez, Secretary General.
Read the note in its original source
Esteemed Department of Labor and Social Welfare of Mexico:
In my capacity of secretary general of IndustriALL Global Union and on behalf of 50 million workers of the manufacturing, mining and energy sectors in 140 countries, including Mexico, I am writing to request the immediate intervention of the government to guarantee free, democratic and fair elections on August 27 at the lafarge Holcim apacim plant in Hermosillo Sonora.
The Mexican Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board has scheduled this election of union representation to define the union that will handle the collective bargaining agreement provided for in Article 931 of the Federal Labor Law.
We particularly request from your government that, through the conciliation and arbitration boards, you guarantee the necessary conditions to allow the workers to cast their personal, free, direct and secret vote.
The workers have been demanding democratic elections for years. Since 2017, the company has fired 12 workers for demanding free elections and better working conditions, especially for the majority of the plant’s production workers who are employed by contractors and are not covered by the union contract.
Additionally, it is important to note that this election is one of the first to be held since the entry into force of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the USMCA, which establishes new mechanisms to penalize violations of workers’ rights to organize themselves and negotiate collectively.
We hope that we can count on your immediate intervention and answer.
Sincerely, Valter Sánchez, Secretary General
