MEXICO CITY (CN) — More than 6,000 employees at a General Motors factory in Silao, Guanajuato, will choose the union they wish to represent them in a referendum that could mark a watershed moment for labor reform in Mexico.
Set to take place on Feb. 1-2, the vote will be the first significant test of the labor provisions laid out in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the multilateral free trade treaty that replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in July 2020.
“The GM vote is an important example of the ability of the United States and Mexico to work together through the USMCA, but also bilaterally in the sense that the United States is providing technical assistance in support of labor reforms in Mexico,” said Earl Anthony Wayne, former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico.
But the vote could also set a precedent for the historic labor reform enacted by the administration of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
“In Mexico, it’s going to be an important signal that they are moving forward with these reforms that went into effect before USMCA, to bring more labor democracy to the country,” said Wayne, who now serves as a public policy fellow for the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute.
Due to the high profile of the company at the heart of the referendum and the priority that the Mexican government has given to its fair and transparent execution, the vote will be highly scrutinized by union members, government officials, the media and independent observers from both Mexico and beyond.
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) on Tuesday exhorted both GM and the Mexican labor authority to ensure a number of conditions that would facilitate a fair and transparent election process, as stipulated by the country’s labor reform and the USMCA.
These included clarification of voting rules and processes before, during and after the vote, assurance of unhindered access to the polls, sufficient paid time off for every worker to vote and allowing international labor practitioners to be among the approved independent observers.
In a statement to Courthouse News, GM Mexico said that it would indeed provide said allowances and conditions, adding that it is “aware of the importance of this exercise to [its] employees.”
The company also said that it “will permit the free access of independent observers authorized by the Federal Center of Conciliation and Labor Registration," which entered into operation in 2020 as part of the country’s labor reform.
The Labor Center said in a press release issued late Thursday evening that it had received 21 applications from aspiring observers and that it would “officially announce if they had met the requirements shortly.” The department added that any observers would not be allowed to hinder or influence employees’ votes in any way or “to demonstrate in favor or against any participating person or organization.”
Employees who will vote expressed trust that the process will be carried out fairly and openly, given that it is conducted under the scrutiny of outside eyes.
“We have faith in the process as long as state and international organizations are present to corroborate that the vote is conducted with transparency,” said María Alejandra Morales Reynoso, an employee at the Silao plant and secretary general of SINTTIA, an independent automobile industry workers’ union formed in late 2019 in hopes of taking full advantage of the provisions granted by the labor reform and the USMCA.
The Silao plant employees voted to oust their previous union in August of last year, after an initial vote was marred by irregularities, prompting the United States to file a complaint under a provision of the USMCA known as the “Facility-Specific Rapid Response Labor Mechanism,” the first of such actions.
Now SINTTIA and three other unions vie for the job of representing the Silao workers, and GM assured Courthouse News that it will not influence its employees’ decisions in any way.
In a press conference on Monday, SINTTIA representatives claimed that the company had previously intervened against its supporters in favor of the other three candidates.
Morales told Courthouse News that employees had complained of “bribery, blackmail, and harassment” during the vote in April, but that the participation of observers in the August referendum gave workers more trust in the process and allowed it to be “conducted in a much calmer manner.”
GM said that it is “against any act of intimidation that [employees] may suffer during the exercise of their rights” and that it invited denunciation of such acts “in a free and anonymous manner … if there be any violation during the voting process.”
While hopeful that the vote would be conducted cleanly, Morales said she would believe it when she sees it.
“They always say things like that in their official statements,” she said, “but the actions they take within the company are different.”
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