GM Union Vote in Mexico Mired by Accusations of Threats, Bribes
GM Union Vote in Mexico Mired by Accusations of Threats, Bribes
(Bloomberg) -- Workers at General Motors Co.’s giant truck factory in central Mexico are reporting being both threatened and offered bribes to sway their vote in a historic union election, throwing its outcome into doubt.
Canada’s Unifor and a new union formed by workers at the plant, known as SINTTIA, say they suspect that Mexico’s largest and most entrenched union is trying to manipulate the election in order to stay in power at the plant. The syndicate, known as the CTM, didn’t respond to a request for comment, and another group has also lodged a complaint against SINTTIA.
The ballot is a bellwether election to see if labor reforms encouraged both by the North American USMCA trade agreement and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will take hold and if employees in the low-wage nation can get more active in collective bargaining. Voting concludes on Wednesday.
The plant’s 6,000 workers have been voting since Tuesday on which union will represent them. There are four options on the ballot, including SINTTIA and the nation’s largest syndicate, known as the CTM. Unifor and the AFL-CIO, the largest union in the U.S., raised red flags prior to the vote, saying they were concerned about lack of protection for workers’ rights inside the GM plant.
International union leaders hope that a victory for SINTTIA will encourage other independent unions to take on the CTM, which they say is more interested in protecting employers and collecting dues from workers than improving pay and working conditions. The union has actively worked to suppress wages in Mexico for many years.
Mexico’s labor conciliation agency, which is overseeing the vote, said it received a complaint for alleged threats against SINTTIA’s secretary general, and another from a different union participating in the election alleging intimidation of workers by SINTTIA, which was captured by an audio recording. The agency requested police presence during the vote.
GM said in an emailed statement it would collaborate with the authorities on any complaint.
Compromised Safety
SINTTIA Secretary General Alejandra Morales said that on Sunday, two men and a woman visited her home to threaten her and the union’s committee. She and the committee were told to not show up at the voting process or else their safety would be at risk, Morales said in a phone interview. The people wouldn’t identify themselves, she said.
Morales showed up anyway, as did the union’s committee. Morales, who works in the plant’s painting area, reported it to local authorities who said they’d look into it. She did not know who was behind the threats.
“We hope the vote goes on without issues, and that whatever the workers choose is respected,” she said.
Unifor also claims that the CTM is trying to buy off workers, allegedly offering employees 500 pesos (about $24) for their vote. They get paid if they show the union a photo of their ballot, said Mohamad Alsadi, director of international department of Unifor, which represents Canadian auto workers but has a presence in Mexico to support SINTTIA.
“We are aware of at least three pictures that people took,” Alsadi said in an interview. “They were offering 500 pesos prior to the vote. They went to their homes prior to the election to offer money.”
Alsadi said SINTTIA and CILAS, a Mexican labor rights group, are keeping track of possible violations.
“There are some irregularities that we are concerned about,” Alsadi said. “They are going to continue to monitor the situation until the end of the vote. Once results are out they will decide what to do with the complaints.”
The GM plant makes the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups, which are the company’s most profitable product lines. The automaker has repeatedly said that it will let workers decide on representation.
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