Traditional unions are shaken by foreign trade

The traditional management of unions, white and charro [protection unions], which permeates companies within various industries in the country is under the magnifying glass of international bodies, which are applying pressure to establish a change in their way of operation. Otherwise, foreign investment and the dynamic of foreign trade in the country would be at risk.

The traditional management of unions, white and charro [protection unions], which permeates companies within various industries in the country is under the magnifying glass of international bodies, which are applying pressure to establish a change in their way of operation. Otherwise, foreign investment and the dynamic of foreign trade in the country would be at risk.

The provisions on labor matters of the of the Mexico, United States and Canada Agreement (USMCA) as well as the reforms to the Federal Labor Law that preceded it establish a series of obligations for companies that participate in it, that include free and democratic trade union association among workers.

Freedom of association, of collective bargaining and the improvement of social justice in Mexico are the core of the labor agreements of the agreement between the three countries of North America.

These new provisions create the obligation for unions to implement a structural change in their operation, in which the involvement of and the service to affiliated employees is indispensable.

However, there is still little indication that unions are aligning themselves to the new regulations, which has triggered a series of denunciations by organized groups of workers in Mexico, American unions and labor authorities of the Joe Biden administration.

Last week, it became known that the largest federation of unions in the United States, the AFL-CIO, asked the government of that country to file the first labor lawsuit against Mexico for violations of Chapter 23 of the USMCA by the Tridonex auto parts plant in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, for allegedly obstructing independent union representation.

The National Independent Union of Workers of Industries and Services “20/32 Movement” (SNITIS) itself, supported by lawyer and activist Susana Prieto, provided all of the evidence to attract the attention of the AFL-CIO in the case of the Tridonex workers.

“We put the case together and when they (the leaders of the AFL-CIO) analyzed it, they said ‘wow, we are in, we go with you, we support you.’

“Thus, it is a joint lawsuit against the Mexican government for the violation to union freedom and democratization; everyone knows about the battle that we have been waging against white unions and charrismo in the north of the country with the 20-32 Movement in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, against the unions attached to the CTM”, explains Prieto in an interview with Reporte Indigo.

The United States Department of Labor, which is analyzing the case, has 30 days to determine whether it will file this suit and the Mexican government would also have the same period of time to submit its evidence or request a conciliation process in order to prevent the request for the participation of a “Rapid Response Arbitration Panel”, which is provided for in the conflict resolution mechanisms within the framework of the USMCA.

The great investor
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by the United States in Mexico registered a fall in 2020; nevertheless, the country governed by Joe Biden continues to be the main investor for Mexico. Foreign Direct Investment Flows from the United States into Mexico

*Amounts in millions of dollars

Surveillance with a magnifying glass

The United States government has established an entire institutional structure to ensure that the agreements of the trade agreement between the three countries that comprise North America are complied with.

One of these agreements is to eliminate “unfair competition”, which implicates the low cost of Mexican labor that encourages transnational countries to favor Mexico over the United States and Canada to establish their investments, explains Oscar de la Vega, founding partner of the De la Vega & Martínez Rojas Law Firm.

Freedom of association, of collective bargaining and the improvement of social justice in Mexico are the center of the labor agreements of the USMCA.

But there is also a law for the implementation of the USMCA, voted in the United States Congress, that determines that these regulations focus on the aerospace industry, industrial bakeries, steel, aluminum, glass, cement and plastics manufacturing and foundry activities, as they are high-export sectors.

Another area on which the sights of the United States authorities are clearly set is automobile assembly and the manufacture of auto parts, where the complaint has been lodged against Tridonex and another complaint has been made against the General Motors plant in Silao, Guanajuato, for allegedly denying the rights of workers in the vote to ratify the collective bargaining agreement that it has with the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM).

This is the price that Mexico pays to belong to one of the most important markets on the planet, which is the new USMCA (…) Faced with this new reality, the workers’ base will learn, little by little, that it has the power of having the capability to decide.

Oscar De la Vega

Founding partner of the De La Vega& Martínez Rojas Law Firm.

In addition to the task of reinventing unions, it will be necessary for companies to also assume that they are going to be monitored in order to avoid labor arbitrariness and illegal associations of employers with union leaders to the detriment of employees, under the threat of tariff sanctions.

In fact, Susana Prieto states that it is a sure thing that Tridonex will receive sanctions.

“There is nothing redeemable about white unionism in the country, the working class has to understand this and throw them out, put an end to them, form their own unions”, she says.

Union federations resist

US unions have Mexican companies on their sights because they hope to attract investments that land in this country thanks to labor and low costs, explains Patricio Flores, spokesperson for the CTM, in an interview with Reporte Índigo.

The unionist points out that comparing the salaries received by workers in industries such as the automotive industry in the United States with salaries in Mexico is unrealistic, because they are ruled by market conditions.

It bothers Americans that our work, regardless of wages, is performed with a quality that rivals any industry in the world. They do not like competition, they would like to have the investments that we have.

Patricio Flores

CTM Spokesperson

Trade Dynamics
In the first quarter of 2021, Mexico was crowned as the main partner of the United States, even ahead of the giant in foreign trade, China. Yearly amounts of exports and imports between Mexico and the United States.
Exports
Imports

*Amounts in millions of dollars
Source: Department of Economy

“If assembly plants are located here, it is because they have high quality labor and, for the Mexican market, the General Motors Contract is quite good, of course we aspire for a much better one, it is the aspiration of all workers”, he explains.

The union of Miguel Trujillo López is affiliated to the CTM; said union holds the collective bargaining agreement with the North American assembler General Motors and it was accused of irregularities at the time of the vote for the ratification the document.

However, Flores insists that it is a problem of overrepresentation by outsiders and that in any case this issue only involves one member of the CTM and not the entire federation of unions.

“The way things have been handled, in the sense that the CTM has created problems and that it is trying to impose things is not true. It is not only the CTM, there are many unions, there are more than four million members, this is a problem of the union they have at the Silao plant.”

Nevertheless, the resolution of the legitimation process of this contract conducted by the Department of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) indicates that said union obtained negative results by the workers in one of the voting sessions