Note published in Reforma, Negocios [Business] Section by Verónica Gascón.
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Note published in El Norte, Negocios [Business] Section by Verónica Gascón.
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Note published in Mural, Negocios [Business] Section by Verónica Gascón.
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The validation of collective bargaining agreements in sectors such as the automotive, auto parts, mining and aerospace sectors will be monitored by the United States to verify that the USMCA is being complied with.
The Department of Labor (STPS) issued changes to the process for the legitimation of collective bargaining agreements, in which workers will be able to report anomalies that arise during voting.
This process is conducted so that the workers support the contents of the agreements through their personal, free, direct and secret vote.
“There was no way for workers to express their unconformity with the procedure or the result, so this is now formalized to enable them to present their complaints”, said Héctor de la Cruz, a lawyer at De la Vega & Martínez Rojas.
A committee of experts in the US that monitors compliance with the USMCA issued recommendations on the legitimation procedure, among them, that the authority verifies and validates the consultation processes and that, even if a notary is present, the STPS must intervene to guarantee compliance with formalities.
While this applies to all companies, he added, there will be special emphasis on high-level export sectors such as the automotive, auto parts, aerospace, call center and mining sectors, etc., which have been marked as priorities by the USMCA.
Unions have until 2023 to conduct a consultation among their workers, who must decide whether they acknowledge the agreement that governs them.
Jorge Sales, a lawyer at Sales Boyoli, agreed that the US is closely monitoring the elimination of protection unions in exporting companies.
“Not all labor issues taking place in Mexico are of interest for the US because not all of them affect that country, those that affect them are the ones that involve the loss of jobs for the US economy and competitive advantages in commercial trade for the Mexican economy”, stated Sales.
Unions have a deadline of May 2, 2023 to legitimize collective bargaining agreements, should they fail to do this, they will cease to exist.
It is estimated that there are around half a million collective bargaining agreements but, so far, only 559 of them have been validated.
