News

As part of a global week of action for Mexico, the Global Unions held a demonstration and met with the Mexican Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva to demand the Mexican government to stop its attacks on workers and allow them to form free and democratic trade unions.



UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, ICEM Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs Kemal Ozkan, IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina and IMF Assistant General Secretary Fernando Lopes met with Juan José Gómez Camacho, Ambassador to the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations in Geneva to press the Mexican government to respect trade union rights and stop attacking workers who want free, independent unions. A group of about 20 UNI, ICEM, IMF and IUF activists held a small action outside of the mission prior to the meeting.



Jennings highlighted the case of call centre workers at Atento Mexico who have been trying to join democratic union Sindicato de Telefonistas de la Republica Mexicana (STRM) but have been denied the chance to hold a fair union election.



“As the host of the 2012 G20 Summit, Mexico must comply with the ILO principles on freedom of association and collective bargaining rights,” said UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings. “But the government has fallen far short of its responsibilities and we have seen workers at Atento and many other companies under attack when they join democratic unions.”



Building on global union action in 2011, independent unions in Mexico, together with their respective global union partners, have come together as a movement of force, challenging retrogressive labour legislation, Mexico’s scandalous “protection contract” system, and exposing corporate and political corruption.



In the case of Atento Mexico, which is owned by Spanish telecom multinational Telefonica, management have a protection contract with a protection union, a union that does not represent the workers or protect their rights but rather “protects” the employer from having a democratic union representing its workers.



In 2011, Atento management and the protection union repeatedly quashed workers’ efforts to hold a union fair election with the Mexican Labour Board so that workers could have the choice of voting for democratic union STRM. UNI is support the workers in their fight to join the STRM and pressing Telefonica to enforce its global agreement with UNI and ensure Atento Mexico workers are able to vote freely for representation by the union of their choice.





You can watch a video about the elections at Atento here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNrXZgfh3dg



The complicity between government officials and protection union leaders has increased, working further to erode basic principles of Freedom of Association and Union Autonomy. Besides Atento, recent examples of this include the lack of solution for the reinstatement of 16,599 members of the Mexican Electrical Workers (SME) despite the agreements made by your Administration on September 13. 2011 and the continuing attacks on Los Mineros, the National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM) and their democratically elected leader Napoleon Urrutia Gómez.



UNI is supporting the week of action and encouraging all of its affiliates to show their support for Mexican workers.



You can find more information about what other global unions are doing, including the

IMF: http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?l=2&c=28714 and

ICEM: http://www.icem.org/en/26-Latin-America-Caribbean/4887-Mexico-Days-of-Action-2012-February-19-25