27 May, 2010IMF calls on affiliates to provide solidarity support by urging Johnson Controls to stop its repression of workers at its plants in Mexico.
MEXICO: The International Metalworkers' Federation is calling on affiliates to take urgent action in support of over 400 workers at another of U.S. transnational Johnson Controls' auto part plants in Puebla
Affiliates are requested to urge Johnson Controls to stop its repression of workers. Please call the Johnson Controls Inc. headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA and ask to leave a message for Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel Jerry Okarma and President Stephen Roell at +1 (414) 5241200.
On May 25, over 400 workers at the Johnson Controls Interiors plant (Resureccion) in Puebla, Mexico, producing interior components for BMW and Ford, signed affiliation cards for the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers (SNTMMSSRM or Los Mineros). Earlier, IMF has reported on a similar situation at a different Johnson Controls plant (FINSA) in Puebla, Mexico where a protection contract with a different union (CROM) exists.
The workers at the Resureccion plant are demanding that the company remove the company-controlled "protection" union (the Confederacion de Organizaciones Sindicales, or COS) and pay legally-required profit sharing, after the company's notice that it would pay only $5 of profit sharing began the protest.
On May 25 the workers, accompanied by the Worker Support Center (CAT) and members of Los Mineros National Executive Committee, presented these demands to Johnson Controls' Human Resources Director, Maricela Rodriguez. The company rejected both demands and said it was the responsibility of the workers, not the company, to get rid of the protection union.
On May 26 a bus and a van with 70 thugs showed up outside the plant. It is not confirmed if these men are armed. The company ran a fire drill to try to get the workers on the first shift to go outside but they refused to leave and remain working inside the plant. The CAT currently has observers outside.
The US Labor Education in the Americas Project (USLEAP) reported on May 26, that representatives of the Federal Labor Secretariat are now inside the Johnson Controls Interiors plant and the company has allowed the 70 thugs from the COS inside as well. "The information we are getting is that at the end of the first shift (2:30 Central time) the workers will be called to an assembly and told that if they do not work they will all be fired," reports USLEAP.
Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls is the largest private company in Wisconsin. It has three plants in Puebla, Mexico that produce seats and seat parts, principally for the Volkswagen assembly plant in Puebla, but also for Chrysler, Ford, Mercedes Benz and Nissan.
USLEAP Solidarity Centre, Worker Support Center (CAT) and IMF's affiliate Los Mineros are sending regular reports and updates to the IMF on the situation.