Recently, in Ciudad Acuña,
Coahuila, a recount to determine bargaining agent status with respect to a
collective contract at the multinational assembly plant Arneses y Accesorios de
México, part of the PKC Group, a company plagued by cheating, illegalities and
fraud, granted CTM Coahuila (the Confederation of Mexican Workers) and PKC a
rigged victory. The National Miners’ Union’s experience there has sent the very
important message that workers across Mexico will no longer put up with being
dragged along or squashed by the allied forces of obsolete businesspeople, old
corporatist unionism and state and federal governments who act against their
legitimate interests and their rights.
This was a further expression of
changes taking place in the world of workers. It confirms our deep-rooted
perception that the Mexican people are not conformist, but rather they are
brave fighters. The very close vote there, with a margin of only 198 votes out
of a total 7528 voters who as a result of threats and pressures favoured CTM
Coahuila’s union corporatism, shows that neither the PKC company nor the
workers’ centre defeated the decided attitude of the workers at this assembly
plant on the border. The results were positive because the workers were in no
way defeated, rather they opened a path to dignity and union autonomy which in
the future will reverse the recent unfavourable result.
This leads us to various important
conclusions. Firstly, that victory was snatched from the authentic workers by
the corruption and betrayal of CTM Coahuila, clearly complicit with PKC’s
corporate terrorism of and covered up by the municipal, state and federal
governments. The PAN (National Action Party) governments’ contempt for the
working class is what has allowed the emergence of these new slave-labour
concentration camps.
Secondly, that a great democratic
workers’ movement has started to build on the border in Ciudad Acuña and in all
the assembly industries, and this is a major historical advance for a working
class which has been abandoned for many years and condemned to a life of
poverty and marginalisation. Despite the efforts of multinational capital,
allied with the Coahuila political elites and the mercenary cooperation of
local media, as well as the corporate servility of the weak CTM Coahuila, today
the workers of the Arneses y Accesorios de México assembly plant, a subsidiary
of the PKC company backed by Finnish capital, have taken a first step towards
breaking their chains. Miners and democratic organisations across the world
will continue to support this movement so as to guarantee their rights to
freedom of association and to political and moral victory, just as they have
wholeheartedly and unconditionally done for many years.
Thirdly, that the figures from the
union recount eloquently express, better than any argument, the fact that
workers, men and above all women, who make up over 60 per cent of the workforce
in assembly plants across the country, will no longer tolerate brutal
exploitation as a product of economic necessity, with no rights or legal
protection and no knowledge of the protection contracts that companies draw up
in their shady pseudo unions in order to mercilessly abuse their power. The
fact that from an electoral register of
7528 workers no fewer than 2546 votes were cancelled (33.8 per cent)
shows the serious irregularity tolerated and promoted by the Federal Council
for Conciliation and Arbitration. The other proportions were, then, 2311 votes
for the miners’ union workers’ model (30.7 per cent) and 2509 for PKC-CTM (33.3
per cent). The difference between the two options was only 198 votes (2.6 per
cent).
The fourth and final conclusion is
that, in terms of this recount, it is evident that the local and federal
authorities joined forces to prevent the self-determination of the workers in
choosing the organisation that represents them. They were also complicit with
PKC, which at all times blocked the way into the manufacturing installations
for members of the miners’ union-democratic workers’ option, and intimidated
the workers for three months, permitting opponents of the CTM-PKC to
proselytise during working hours. The role of local media, which we know are
managed by the Coahuila state government, was equally asymmetrical: time and
support were given to PKC-CTM and not a single minute to the miners’ proposal.
What is more, through corporate terrorism, intimidation and constant blackmail,
PKC itself and the weak, sell-out CTM Coahuila disseminated the libellous
message that victory for miner’s union’s would cause PKC to leave Acuña.
This union recount is an example of
the immoral degradation of labour policy under the PAN governments: Vicente Fox
named Francisco Javier Salazar minister and Felipe Calderón did the same for
Javier Lozano, and they have been the worst Ministers for Labour that the
country has ever had. How much have these mediocre, extemporising and corrupt
men, who should be condemned to the dustbin of history, cost Mexico in illegal
conflicts? These civil servants have been a disgrace and they deserve political
judgement both nationally and internationally, although for now they feel like
they enjoy protection and impunity.
Our country must not and cannot
support this unholy alliance of government, business and pseudo unions because
with all this respectable politics will be shipwrecked. Under these
circumstances, the approval of labour reform will only formalise the
exploitation which is currently practiced illegally.
