VW Union will vote on contractual revision agreement

Note published on August 1 in El Economista, Empresas [Companies] Section by María del Pilar Martínez.
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This process is part of the new dynamic required by the labor reform, where all workers must agree with the negotiations carried out by the leaders of any union, otherwise the entire agreement falls apart.

This coming August 5, the Volkswagen Independent Union of Automotive Industry Workers (SITIAVW) will put to a vote, before approximately 8,000 technical workers, the 2022 agreement of contractual revision, where 50%+1 is required to consider the agreements reached this past July 20 with the company as being valid.

This process is part of the new dynamic required by the labor reform, where all workers must agree with the negotiations carried out by the leaders of any union, otherwise the entire agreement falls apart.

In this regard, labor specialist Óscar de la Vega explained that the Volkswagen Union is denominated as independent and democratic, which means that they are close to the workers base and “there should be no problem for the negotiation to go forward.”

If the majority of the workers vote in favor of the agreement, it will enter into force on August 18 at 11:00 hours; otherwise, conciliation tables will have to be set up or a strike may be called.

The agreement reached by the Union with the company was for a direct salary increase of 9% and 2% in benefits, considered as one of the best increases in the automotive sector.

In this sense, De la Vega explained that “the days in which the union leader had the last word in deciding the future of the collective bargaining agreement are in the past.”

He recalled that in this case, workers will cast their vote in a free, secret and direct manner to make their position in regard to the contractual negotiation known; in the event that they say no, where the majority does not agree, then the agreement will have no validity whatsoever.

The agreement for an increase reached by the Volkswagen Union in 2021 was of a 5.5% direct increase to salary and 1% in benefits.

So far this year, 1,402 salary reviews have been resolved, involving 692,416 workers, who received average increases of 6.8% in nominal terms and a decrement of 0.7 percent in real terms.