Panasonic workers in Mexico elect independent union, defeating top labor group

FILE PHOTO – A person is seen subsequent to Panasonic Corp’s emblem at Panasonic Heart in Tokyo, Japan, February 2, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

MEXICO CITY, April 23 (Reuters) – Staff at a Panasonic auto elements plant in northern Mexico elected an unbiased union this week, marking one other defeat for one of many nation’s largest labor organizations as Mexico seeks to strengthen employee rights according to a brand new commerce deal.

Union SNITIS, which grew out of employee dissatisfaction with conventional labor teams within the northern state of Tamaulipas, received 75% of ballots in a two-day election wherein 2,150 folks have been eligible to vote, Mexico’s federal labor middle mentioned late on Friday.

The competing group, SIAMARM, a part of the 86-year-old Confederation of Mexican Staff (CTM), received 25% on the manufacturing unit, which makes automobile audio and show methods, largely for U.S. and Canadian markets.

The consequence follows different current votes towards CTM, at a Normal Motors plant within the central state of Guanajuato and at auto elements plant Tridonex in Tamaulipas, each websites that confronted U.S. scrutiny for potential employee rights abuses beneath the United States-Mexico-Canada Settlement (USMCA) commerce deal, which got here into drive in 2020. learn extra [nL1N2V40DO]

SNITIS received the Tridonex election in February with almost 87% of the vote, in what union leaders hoped would set off a ripple impact. learn extra

“This has been overwhelming, just like the consequence at Tridonex, and we hope it is the identical method in any respect factories that proceed to hitch this new period of unbiased unionism,” SNITIS founder Susana Prieto mentioned in a social media video after the Panasonic vote outcomes.

Panasonic mentioned in an announcement that it revered and supported its workers’ proper to free affiliation and seemed ahead to working with SNITIS as soon as it’s formally registered because the manufacturing unit’s new union.

CTM didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, and SIAMARM couldn’t be reached instantly.

SIAMARM head Alberto Lara mentioned on social media forward of the vote that he would defend weak employees and that his union would supply the perfect contract.

SNITIS final week urged the U.S. authorities to research the Panasonic plant for alleged employee rights abuses, the most recent in a collection of disputes searching for to leverage the USMCA to enhance office circumstances in Mexico. learn extra

This week’s union election at Panasonic stemmed from a vote final 12 months wherein employees rejected their prior union contract.

Such votes are required by a current Mexican labor reform to finish the as soon as widespread follow of unions and firms signing “safety contracts” with out employee data.

Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; Modifying by Andrea Ricci and Leslie Adler

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