Mexican officials extended at the beginning of the week the deadline for the union of a General Motors plant in Silao, Guanajuato, to once again vote on a collective contract that has attracted the scrutiny of the US government, for alleged violations of the Treaty between Mexico, United States and Canada (T-MEC).
The United States government has warned that if the vote is not held before August 20, the contract may be terminated. The first vote, held in April,
On May 11, the Mexican Labor Secretariat ordered the GM union to hold a new vote within 30 days. At the end of the deadline, the AFL-CIO, the largest labor union in the United States and Canada, said it was “deeply concerned” by the delays, and US lawmakers urged General Motors to ensure that it would comply with the requirements of the T-MEC.
The deadline was delayed at the request of the union to ensure that there were no logistical “impediments” to the participation of the majority of workers, the labor ministry said.
The General Motors factory complex to freely elect their union leaders.
The findings led the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to make the first request for a review of possible labor violations under the new trade pact that replaced NAFTA. The accusations escalated and the US trade representative, Katherine Taia, asked Mexico to examine the alleged labor rights violations during a vote on a union contract in April at the factory.
One of the annexes to Chapter 23 of the new T-MEC, one of the most important for the US administration, dictates that the Mexican government must guarantee workers the right to participate in collective bargaining and freely choose the union that they want to join and to the leaders of this one.
General Motors workers in Silao are represented by the Miguel Trujillo López union, affiliated with the Confederación de Trabajadores de México (CTM), one of the largest and oldest labor organizations in the country.
Tereso Medina, leader of the Miguel Trujillo López union, told Reuters that the request to delay the date is due to “an issue of responsibility” as General Motors grapples with a global shortage of chips that has forced some pauses in production, adding that his union will not miss the August 20 deadline for the next vote, in which workers will decide whether to keep their current collective bargaining agreement.
These votes of ratification are necessary under the Mexican labor reform of 2019, which supports the TMEC labor provisions, to guarantee that workers are not subject to contracts that were signed behind their backs.
Later, in a statement, General Motors reiterated that it would “do everything possible to support the process,” including cooperating with the Mexican government and allowing independent observers to monitor the vote. The company emphasized that it condemns violations of labor rights.
