Experts fear the labor crisis in Mexico due to pressure on the T-MEC

The Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC) overturned the labor legislation in Mexico with a view to solving some of its main deficiencies. However, experts fear that these same improvements could unleash periods of crisis in the workplace.

“New union forces are growing … and all this adds to a certain job instability,” said Oziel Guerrero, a labor lawyer at Vega, Guerrero & Asociados.

The treaty requires Mexico, among other things, to ensure that workers can exercise their right of association and protect the processes of union democracy. The change was seen as a blow to the corporate unionism that dominated the country for decades and as a boost to new and independent unions.

However, the proliferation of unions could create a pitched battle between union groups and lead to instability.

Óscar de la Vega, from the firm De la Vega & Martínez Rojas, believes that the labor reform was implemented too soon, without first patching gaps in the union law.

“If this is not modified in a comprehensive manner, there may be a crisis in labor issues. We are ‘at the fourth for a while’ to begin to see problems like GM’s, but already constantly in sectors … that are high export, “he said.

In contrast, Juan Francisco Torres, leader of the Hogan Lovells practice in Latin America, was more optimistic about the job changes that came with the T-MEC, but did not ignore his concern about possible crises.

“I hope that what is not generated, and I think that it suits no one, that there would be a climate of hostility; that there were strikes, stoppages. That would not be good for the country, starting with the workers themselves, “he said.

The implementation of the labor reform is under the scrutiny above all of the US authorities, who put together “a very strong structure” to monitor its progress in Mexico, explained Eusebio Hidalgo, founding partner of the firm Ansley Consultores.