News

The UNI Americas Regional Conference, meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay, on 5-7 December 2012:

1. CONSIDERS that protection contracts are a threat not only to the fundamental rights and freedoms of Mexican workers but to those of workers in the region and in the whole world.

2. STATES that there is a serious, systematic, constant violation of workers’ fundamental rights in Mexico, and that protection contracts are one of the main causes of these violations.

3. STATES that protection contracts represent one of the worst models for imposing neoliberal policies in the region. They have notably negative consequences: they create a greater inequality and job insecurity for workers, and they hinder economic development and productivity in companies where they exist.

4. WARNS of the proliferation of this type of contract in different countries in the region. They are largely introduced by Mexican companies that select unions for their own benefit, and pretend to engage in collective bargaining and respect workers’ representation.

5. REJECTS both the existence and the spread of these contracts inside and outside of Mexico.

6. STANDS in full solidarity with Mexican union organizations in their fight against these kinds of contracts and in favor of the reform of structural, legal and institutional provisions that have made their existence possible.

7. CALLS on the Mexican Government and companies to acknowledge their responsibility and contribution to the existence of protection contracts, as well as their negative impact on workers, and to the deterioration and degradation of the living conditions of Mexican people.

8. CALLS on the Mexican Government and companies to consider the elimination of these contracts as a key, clear objective in their proposed labor reforms, and to set as minimum standards in these reforms the ILO international core labor standards.

9. CALLS on the Mexican Government to begin a national campaign to end all violence, extortion, intimidation, kidnapping, murders and other crimes associated with protection contracts, so that employers, unions and workers can work in a climate free from fear.

10. DEMANDS that Mexican multinationals put an end to company-controlled unions and protection contracts in their regional and global expansion processes.

11. URGES the Mexican Government to sign ILO Convention No. 98 and to incorporate it into Mexican labor law in compliance with the Human Rights Act passed by Congress in 2011.