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Unifor will be in Mexico for a union vote at a General Motors plant in Silao, Mexico next week, where four unions will be on the ballot for workers to choose from.
“We have great concerns about the fairness of this vote,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias. “Workers at this plant have clearly rejected the company union in the past and demanded clear and free elections to choose their own union. What they are getting, instead, is a muddied ballot that makes a clear outcome difficult to achieve.”
In a letter to Mexico’s Federal Centre for Conciliation and Labor Registration, which will run the vote, Dias called for strong remedial action to ensure a fair vote, including international observers including the International Labour Organization, strong security in and around the plant to prevent intimidation, a voters’ list for the independent union SINTTIA and for SINTTIA representatives to be able to monitor the vote.
The vote will be held February 1-2, 2022, and comes after several delays following a rejection by the workers of a protection agreement between the CTM union and the company in 2021.
“It appears that this delay was used by the CTM union to campaign in the workplace and to put in place additional unions to divide worker votes,” Dias said in the letter. “One of these unions appeared suddenly, with no history of representation or membership in the plant, and with a highly suspect petition containing personal information about workers in the plant.
Both SINTTA and CTM, as well as two other unions with ties to the company, will be on the ballot.
Unifor International Department and Social Justice Fund Director Mohamad Alsadi will be in Mexico for the vote. Dias and Alsadi have worked closely with Mexican labour rights group CILAS and SINTTIA to help ensure a free and fair vote for workers at the plant.
“These workers have every right to fair representation in the workplace, and the right to choose their own union,” Alsadi said. “Unifor will continue to do all it can to ensure that happens.”
