In 20 days ends the term started four years ago to legitimize the collective bargaining agreements (CCT) registered in the country and progress is 11 percent. Said process, one of the most important of the labor reform, opens two paths for the independent unions: dissipate or gain the representativeness that the old workers unions will lose.
Some of these so-called independent organizations “are going to get stuck in the bars without being able to jump.” The metaphor is from Alfonso Bouzas Ortíz, coordinator of the Citizen Observatory of Labor Reform (OCRL).
“After May 2, the doors are not closed to us, on the contrary. Companies where contracts are not legitimized because the unions did things wrong will be spaces of opportunity for us,” says Abelina Ramírez, general secretary of the Independent National Democratic Union of Agricultural Day Laborers (SINDJA).
The legitimation of the CCT It is the endorsement of the worker base to its collective contract through a personal, free, direct and secret vote. Before the 2019 labor reform, this requirement did not exist.
In accordance with the eleventh transitory article of the reform, the term to legitimize the contracts ends next may 1. Those that are not put to consultation “will be considered terminated”, but the companies must retain the benefits for the personnel involved.
After a review in 2019, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) updated the number of collective contracts in force and reduced it from more than 550,000 to 139,000. Of that last figure, only 14,739 have been legitimized so far. That is, the 11% of the total.
Why legitimize collective contracts?
For more than 30 years, workers, workers, academic specialists and legal accompanists of dissident unions have insisted that “more than 90% of collective bargaining in Mexico it was just lies, many workers didn’t even know they had a collective contract”, Alfonso Bouzas points out in an interview.
But it was not until the reform of the Constitution in 2017 and the Federal Labor Law in 2019 that they managed to create a measure so that this did not continue to happen. This great change in the world of work in the country “has freedom and trade union democracy as its backbone,” explains the labor activist.
“The legitimacy of the CCT arises because in Mexico there are thousands of employer protection contracts,” says Inés González, collegiate coordinator of the Network of Women Unionists (RMS).
For many unions, the negotiation consisted of guaranteeing “the employer that he would have control over the workers. In exchange, the leaders obtained support so that the creation of labor movements autonomous”, he details. That is why the base did not always agree with what was agreed or did not even know the contract.
“One of the most important objectives of the labor reform is to put an end to protection contracts”, reiterated the federal Secretary of Labor Luisa María Alcalde Luján. Knowledge of the content of the CCT and its legitimacy is one of the ways to achieve this.
Double-edged sword for independents
In the agricultural entities of the north of the country, “a large number of companies are running out of the legitimacy of their collective contracts because the charro unions are not doing it and they are not going to do it,” says Segura Abelina Ramírez, leader of day laborers. .
Once the legal term ends, it continues, the SINDJA and other independent unions who also do not have ownership of the collective agreement will have the opportunity to request the certificate of representativeness.
The negotiation of the CCT can be carried out by the union that represents at least the 30% of staff covered by the collective agreement, according to article 390 Bis of the LFT. “Before, we had to represent more than 51% of affiliates to fight the collective agreement,” but the reform gave impetus to minority unions.
“So, for unions like ours it is an opportunity. But above all, for workers who have not been able to fully exercise their right to union freedom”. In the case of the agricultural industry, he explains, the obstacles have come from companies that harass and fire day laborers. But also of the unions that belong to the large labor unions and have ownership of the CCT.
Alfonso Bouzas ponders the analysis of the independent unions. Although many of these organizations are very active, “some directives sin for being distant from the bases. Not all of them are as close as, for example, the one demonstrated by the telephone operators union. Like it or not, the bases came out convinced of the contractual negotiation”.
Active union life does not make the legitimization process easier, but it does make it democratic, says Inés González. And she gives the example of the Independent Union of Volkswagen Workers of Mexico, which barely managed to legitimize its CCT in mid-March.
“The workers know their contract because they have fought for it, they know how valuable it is. Of course, each time it will be a more demanding group and it will request more on account than a union with workers and workers accustomed to not being consulted”, she adds.
There will be fewer collective labor contracts, also fewer unions, while the number of unionized people is also going down. Just a little less than 13% of the working population is affiliated with a trade union organization.
Alfonso Bouzas estimates that next May “we will truly know what the political weight of the unions of organized workers and if all the rest (workers), which are 90%, want to continue without unions”.
