Note published on November 2 in El Economista, Empresas [Companies] Section by María del Pilar Martínez.
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Union organizations with active collective bargaining agreements (CCT) have scheduled around 200 voting events for this month of November, with the objective of complying with the obligation of legitimizing the current agreements.
According with data from the Federal Center for Labor Conciliation and Registration (CFCRL), companies that will submit to voting by the workers under the free, secret and direct modality are Cervezas Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma, Nueva Wal Mart de México; Hyundai Steel México; Grupo Posadas; Holcim México Operaciones; Tiendas Soriana, among others.
The legitimization process has a deadline of May, 2023, given that, in accordance with the Federal Labor Law, a term for eliminating protection agreements was granted and new control instruments and institutions were created.
It is worth noting that, so far, 2,029 legitimizations have been conducted, with a total of 4,847 events; 1,390 registered unions and with the participation of 950,221.
The reform, explained Eduardo Arrocha, partner at the De la Vega & Martínez Rojas Firm, has the objective of putting an end to the practice of entering into “protection collective bargaining agreements”, signed behind the backs of the workers in violation of their rights of freedom of association to create a union or join a union that has already been created or not associating at all, and also in violation of free collective bargaining.
He pointed out that this ratification will be an essential requirement to be able to register and deposit collective bargaining agreements, both in the case of initial agreements and their revisions. It is important to note that depositing the CCT is a requirement, and it prevents eventual calls to strike due to their signature. “this activity is the one that is sought to be eliminated, preventing employers from being subject to extortion.”
Dissolved CCTs
Data provided by the CFCRL indicates that, to this date, there are 13 collective bargaining agreements that have been officially dissolved, given that the workers voted against the legitimization of those agreements already existing between the company and the union. The General Motors agreement is added to this group of agreements, having been dissolved on November 3.
Change processes have taken place at the same time as the legitimizations, said Isaías González Cuevas, leader of the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Peasants (CROC), who explained that the union organization that he represents has conducted important processes; on the one hand “submitting to voting in the Hard Rock hotels with the objective of representing the workers and a strike in Tlaxcala that was submitted to voting and is in place ever since.”
He added that in the case of the Hard Rock hotels “counting resulted in 243 votes for CROC and 194 for the Confederation of Mexican Workers. Human rights agencies, the Institute of Transparency and Civil Protection and police forces participated in the process.”
