The labour reform has already begun to transform mexican unionism, specialists agree. A new wave of independent organizations seems to be rising, as happened at other times in our country’s history. But suspicion of unions and fear of organizing continue to be ballasts.
This week concluded a six year turnaround process to implement new rules of union democracy, collective bargaining and labor justice in the country. This began in 2017 with a constitutional reform, followed in 2019 with changes to the Federal Labor Law (LFT) pressured by the T-MEC and ended with a four-year implementation transition period that lasted until the May 1, 2023.
The new rules are “promoting a recomposition of the union movement in Mexico. How deep and extensive it will be depends on various elements, such as the actions of the authorities”, says Héctor de la Cueva, coordinator of the Center for Labor Research and Union Advice (CILAS).
For Alix Trimmer, founder of the Intersectional Labor firm (Lain), “we are in a new era of labor law and trade unionism in Mexico. It is essential to remember that the gender perspective has to be the axis to modify the way of doing things and change our minds”.
Laws need time to penetrate society, says Enrique Larios, president of the College of Labor Law Professors of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). “We still can’t know how much is happening, but they have happened important things in these four years.
In Mexico, 12.7% of people with a subordinate job are unionized. This means that a little more than 87% do not have the stability and job security that a collective bargaining agreement (CCT) grants them, nor the protection of a union.
The reality of “paper unionism”
Without disregarding the labor reform, Héctor de la Cueva says that it “has not gone as fast or as deep as expected. It is full of contradictions, gaps and is allowing the old union structures, the old corporatism, the old mafias to be recycled”.
The proof is, he maintains, that “a large part of the CCT legitimations have been simulated. The old corporate centrals, such as the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) or the new ones, such as the Autonomous Confederation of Workers and Employees of Mexico (CATEM), have been openly allowed to carry out simultaneous consultations and break the law.”
As a result of the reform, all the unions had to put the CCT to a vote of their bases. This was devised so that workers know the content of their contract and express, through legitimacy, their endorsement of the conditions that the document indicates.
The term to legitimize them ended on May 1, less than 20% of CCTs They were put to consultation and approved. Alix Trimmer sees “an encouraging picture, although it is not what people expected.” The remaining collective contracts show that this measure “was not done to validate the pre-existing trade unionism, on the contrary. What there was in Mexico was a paper unionism”.
Lose your fear of unions
He labor movement in the country has a long history. Since the 19th century there have been organizations against inhuman working conditions.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the workers’ struggle gave rise to the Mexican Revolution, from which the 1917 Constitution and article 123 emerged, where the right to strike and they recognized each other labor guarantees that would later serve as the basis for the International Labor Organization (ILO).
Other uprisings were generated in the 1930s, then in the 1950s, and finally in the 1970s. We would like to believe that we are at the gates of a new union insurgencylike that of the 70s, when a large part of the current independent unions were born”, says Héctor de la Cueva.
However, although there are clear examples of the new wave, such as the National Independent Union of Workers in the Automotive Industry (SINTTIA) at General Motors, something is missing: lose the fear.
“Working people are very afraid of the unionism concept”, says the founder of Lain”. Shock, white, violent or corrupt unions is what remained in the mind of the working class, she adds.
“The charro, corporate unions left an image that has not faded yet. They were gangster organizations”, says Law doctor Enrique Larios. “And the (PRI) governments promoted their power for many years, it will not be easy to put an end to it.”
And if “we are not seeing a union insurgency” As in other times, it is because this time “the workers are not leading a broad movement”, points out Héctor de la Cueva.
“The workers need to shake off the fear that was built during so many years of neoliberalism. The workers are tied to the fear of dismissal, that has worked perfectly as blackmail. It is often said that it is better to have a poorly paid job than to be on the street. The ghost of unemployment always hanging around, ”she adds.
The role of sector authorities
In eliminating the idea of the old unionism and overcoming the fear of reprisals “we could have a greater effort than labor authorities. Perhaps presenting the face that trade unionism has today in Mexico, informing more”, says Alix Trimmer.
But it is that the old unionism subsists, predominates “and controls the majority of the workers”, says Héctor de la Cueva. “The labor authorities have not had the presence that is needed. When they are scheduled legitimation inquiries or verification of contracts, the authorities are not present and the old organizations hire their notaries to do their thing”.
In addition, “the new labor judges, instead of facilitating things, they are hindering them. There are many worker movements that want to break free from protection unionism and they move forward, but they stop at the court.” And with the case of a German company in Guanajuato, where SINTTIA sued for ownership of the CCT, but after five months the court has not resolved the issue.
“When workers finally lose their fear and dare to organize, they still face a lot of obstacles to freely exercising their will. That is also holding back the creation of independent unions”, adds the worker.
The labor authorities “are present, but cautious”, considers Alix Trimmer. “Mexico has a very, very complicated union history, even violent. That is reflected by the authorities by offering accompaniment and carrying out this media campaign that seeks the union activity”.
The close link between government and unionswhere you could not see where one side began and the other ended, has also kept the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) out of many situations to avoid that image.
The reform has also brought us “a new authority with a very recent operation. Surely there will be things that must be changed throughout the life of the new institutions. But they have good purposes; They have the slogan that collective bargaining and union life in Mexico is full, real and I think they are doing what is needed to achieve it”, he expresses.
