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19 May, 2010National trade union organizations, workers, non-governmental organizations and international trade union federations like the IMF are all fighting for trade unions that genuinely represent Mexican workers: unions that negotiate collective agreements, promote freedom of association and protect workers' interests.
Text / Valeska Solis & Julio Pomar
Translation / Chris Whitehouse
Carmen Sánchez Juárez and Jorge Isidoro Aguilar Lara are fighting to create an authentic trade union for themselves and their fellow workers at the United States transnational company Johnson Controls. They want a union that genuinely represents them, fights for them and with them, and does not simply pretend to do so, like the "paper" unions that for many years have operated at Johnson Controls and elsewhere in Mexico.
Carmen, Jorge and six of their colleagues were dismissed by Johnson Controls one and a half years ago because they demanded a review of the pay provisions of the collective agreement covering workers at the company. They had also started to get informed about their rights and called on the trade union that claims to represent them to protect them against company harassment and arbitrary management decisions. They discovered that the collective contract was actually a protection contract and the union claiming to represent them was no more than a "paper" union. In response, the company claimed it was no longer able to continue paying these six workers, ignoring the fact that four of the workers concerned are single mothers in urgent need of an income, however low the pay is at Johnson Controls.
Johnson Controls de Puebla is a subsidiary of a U.S. transnational company based in Milwaukee, which owns another 90 companies in the U.S., Mexico and other countries. In Puebla, the company manufactures seats for Volkswagen and this involves cutting and sewing cloth and leather, upholstering, making moulds and assembling polyurethane seat bases.
The company employs about 600 workers in Puebla. Working conditions are poor and shifts are 12 hours long. Workers are contracted to work eight hour shifts but are forced to work longer hours from Monday to Saturday, while the company quibbles about overtime rates. Women receive lower pay than men for the same work. This serious discrimination against women is theoretically prohibited by the Mexican Constitution, the Federal Labour Law and the Anti-Discrimination Law but employers and labour authorities in every single state of the federation conspire to violate these laws, leaving no one to protect the victims of such workplace abuse. The company has a 5,000 peso (US$410) life insurance policy for every worker but contributions to this policy are automatically deducted from wages. In addition, trade union dues are automatically deducted from wages every week - 32 pesos (US$2.60) out of a daily wage of 198 pesos (US$16.25).